From the beginning of this year, the United Arab Emirates changed its weekend into Saturday and Sunday.
Most of the Gulf countries have Friday and Saturday weekend plans. But the UAE has taken a significant step to change its weekend.
Under this new working schedule, UAE will have 4 and 2/1 working days in a week and the weekend will start from Friday afternoon.
This can be seen as a simple change but we should consider the benefits that UAE is willing to achieve.
So, let’s dig in.
What are the Benefits?
One of the major objectives of this new working schedule is to boost productivity, trade, and improve work-life balance.
Secondly, moving to this new working schedule will ensure smooth financial and trade transactions with the countries which follow the same weekend plan (Saturday and Sunday).
With the Covid 19 pandemic, the economy of the UAE shrank by 6.2% in 2020 which is mainly linked with foreign trade, foreign investments, tourism, and the logistic sector.
However, the Central Bank of UAE expected that the economy will rebound by 2.1% in 2021 and by 4.2% in 2022.
Also, on the other hand, UAE unveiled its 50 initiatives to boost the economy, attract $150 billion in new foreign investments to boost its economy.
Most importantly, UAE relaxed Islamic laws on cohabitation which allows unmarried couples to cohabitate.
Also, UAE unveiled its new private-sector labour laws, which reduce the difference between public and private sectors.
UAE has taken all these measures to achieve its global actor position in this century. The country is planning to become a global player in the next 50 years in different industries.
This new working schedule will probably work, which will increase the productivity of the employees and will allow the UAE economy to compete with the rest of the world.
If this works, it can be applied to the other states in the region also.
You can go through my previous article on gender inequality in the middle east.
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons
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