The Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), Emma Theofelus, officially opened the annual public entity communication and public relations conference at Katima Mulilo, which is being attended by all communications practitioners under the theme "Bridging the Gap through Communications.".

The platform offers attendees knowledge and skills that could better their organisations, encourage participation, and put to work lessons learned.

"Try to look into unchartered territory, try certain things; if they fail, they fail, but we must fail forward and learn where it's necessary, so let us experiment as communicators; let us try this and that; let us not be boxed down in a comfortable way of doing things; let us constantly pay attention to what other institutions are doing outside the country, in our SADC region, the continent, and the world; but we must continuously improve, grow, and progress; otherwise, we will be left behind as a country, and I don't think it's in any of our interest to do that."

Theofelus also spoke on the efforts the ministry has made to improve communication channels while emphasising the need for value addition in this regard. 

"As a ministry, we have also launched a government communication plan that I hope we are also using as PROs and public entity communicators to communicate the efforts of government across the country. We have also embarked on a crisis communication plan, particularly after COVID-19 and even the crisis of losing a sitting head of state. All of those are avenues for us to look at some of these documents and see how we may add value to them; we need to improve them; we need to add value to them so that they continue to serve the purpose of making our communication work easier."

She said there is a need for innovative and updated communication techniques as well as tools to adjust and cater to an advancing audience.

Participants are expected to take part in discussions centred around various communications aspects.