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The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday that the country would shift to the traditional Western Monday through Friday workweek, with a half-day on Fridays, according to the Associated Press.
The decision comes as an attempt to appeal to Western businesses and tourists, a major revenue source for the UAE, the AP reported.
In a statement, the government said the move will help the financial sector line up with "global real-time trading and communication-based transactions." It also said the schedule is meant to "boost not only trading opportunities but also add to the flexible, secure and enjoyable lifestyle the Emirates offers its citizens and residents."
The UAE will be joining Lebanon and Turkey in adopting the Monday through Friday schedule. Most nations in the Middle East follow a Sunday through Thursday workweek.
The announcement also mentioned that government employees would work a half-day on Friday, the traditional Muslim holy day. Islamic Friday noon sermons will move to 1:15 to accommodate employees leaving work.
The government did not mention whether private employers would also have to provide the Friday half-days, but the private industry will most likely follow in the government's footsteps when it comes to shifting the workweek, according to the AP. Dubai education officials already confirmed all private schools would move to the schedule at the start of next year's term.
Skyscraper-studded Dubai has attracted a variety of Western multinational firms over the years. Its Dubai International Financial Center overseen by independent regulators has grown, providing stock traders and market traders a convenient time zone to work between Asian and European markets—the sun sets in this part of the Mideast around the time markets open in New York.
"The new working week will also bring the UAE's financial sector into closer alignment with global real-time trading and communications-based transactions," the government statement said, adding that the new schedule aims to "boost not only trading opportunities but also add to the flexible, secure and enjoyable lifestyle the Emirates offers its citizens and residents."
The Emirati government hailed the decision as making it "the first nation in the world to introduce a national working week shorter than the global five-day week"—a reference to Friday becoming only a half-day workday.
Dubai-based investors who deal with the West welcomed the move, expecting it to make their lives easier.
"The weekend change sends a very strong signal to the global investment community," said Faisal Durrani, a partner at real estate consultancy Knight Frank. "The UAE's pro-business focus has been cemented."
The UAE, the region's premier trade and finance hub, faces new challenges as Saudi Arabia ramps up its efforts to lure foreign firms and investors as it seeks to wean itself off oil.
The kingdom has told all multinational firms they must move to their regional headquarters to Riyadh or risk losing lucrative state contracts by 2024—stirring tensions with less-conservative Dubai that long has enticed foreigners with special economic zones, quality schools, ritzy penthouses and a dizzying array of bars and restaurants.
To further boost its brand as a cosmopolitan hub as it battled the economic effects of the pandemic, the UAE has made a series of changes to its penal code, based on Islamic law, or Shariah. The overhaul has loosened regulations on alcohol consumption, decriminalized cohabitation of unmarried couples, relaxed stringent punishments for drug offenses, and allowed foreigners to marry, divorce and inherit wealth based on their home country's legal systems, among other things.
As the virus overwhelmed hospitals and triggered lockdowns around the world, the highly inoculated and open-for-business UAE emerged as somewhat of a haven for the world's rich who have snapped up record numbers of luxury homes in the Emirates this year.
The country, where foreign residents outnumber locals nearly nine to one, also rolled out long-term residency options to talented professionals and their families, issued special visas to freelancers and remote workers and offered wealthier expats the chance to retire in Dubai.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
