Saudi Arabia is to use French expertise to set up a national opera and orchestra under an agreement signed Monday that underlined the modernising agenda of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman as he began his official trip to Pari, Galf News reported.

The deal will see the Paris opera company help the kingdom produce its own classical music and shows, a further sign of Prince Mohammad’s desire to change the image of his homeland.

He has already announced the lifting of a ban on women driving, the re-opening of cinemas for the first time in over three decades and new mixed-gender concerts.

The kingdom revealed Monday that it would enter short films at the Cannes cinema festival for the first time and send an official delegation to the celebration of often edgy and subversive silver-screen art on the Riviera this May.

Speaking with her Saudi counterpart, French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen said she had also discussed “the importance of translating books in both directions, from Arabic into French and French into Arabic”.