Gulf News | Launching the second batch of the Executive Program in Government Communication to consolidate excellence and innovation in government communication practices

Dr. Sheikha Rana bint Issa bin Daij Al Khalifa, Director General of the Institute of Public Administration, confirmed that government communication has today become an important strategic factor in supporting public policies, enhancing transparency, and highlighting national achievements in various fields, which requires continuous investment in developing national leaders and competencies working in the communication sector and enabling them to possess modern skills and tools capable of delivering government messages efficiently and professionally, and enhancing their readiness to deal with rapid changes in all sectors, which contributes to consolidating a unified and influential government discourse. It reflects the achievements of the Kingdom of Bahrain and its development aspirations.

This came at the opening of the second batch of the Executive Program in Government Communication, in the presence of Ahmed Khaled Al-Arifi, CEO of the National Contact Center. The Director General of the Institute of Public Administration added that the partnership with the National Contact Center reflects the keenness of both sides to adopt an advanced approach in preparing government communication competencies, by focusing on anticipating future media trends, and employing innovation and artificial intelligence tools in developing communication practices, in a way that enhances the ability of government agencies to create influential content, and measure the media impact of their initiatives.

For his part, Mr. Ahmed Khaled Al-Arifi, CEO of the National Contact Center, stressed that investing in the national competencies of employees of the government communication sector represents an investment in supporting the ability of institutions to build their correct image and translate their efforts in accordance with national priorities into clear and influential messages that reflect what they are doing for the sake of the nation and the citizens, pointing out that government communication today constitutes one of the main capabilities for supporting development paths and consolidating the positive image of the Kingdom of Bahrain at all levels. Al-Arifi explained that the fruitful cooperation with the Institute of Public Administration is a matter of great pride, as the launch of the second batch of the Executive Program in Government Communication comes after the success of the first batch that was launched last November, and the qualitative impact that the trainees experienced in the content of the training topics, which included the most important main pillars upon which today communication leaders in various government agencies rely to perform their media duties to the fullest extent within an institutional framework based on governance and continuous evaluation to ensure the quality and sustainability of performance. The CEO pointed out that the program, which comes within the framework of the Center’s shared communications services sector’s efforts to raise the efficiency of government performance in the field of the communications sector by building and strengthening the capabilities of its employees, aims to develop knowledge, skills and behaviors in communication practices by employing innovation and modern technologies in daily work according to a studied methodology with professionalism and high quality, in addition to learning about the mechanisms of media management of crises, and identifying best practices in digital government communication in a way that contributes to the successful management of the digital reputation of entities, in addition to informing the participants of the mechanisms for dealing with international media and the successful experiences of the Kingdom of Bahrain on At the level of international communication, which contributes to achieving excellence in communication within a single government system.

It is noteworthy that the Executive Program in Government Communication is a specialized program targeting employees of the communication sector in the category of department directors, department heads, group heads and the like, and aims to develop the leadership skills of participants in the field of communication policy making and drawing up strategic plans, and to enhance their capabilities in managing government communication in accordance with modern best practices.