The weekend shift, first proposed by Labor Minister Tayeb Louh, was accepted by the Algerian cabinet Tuesday and will take effect August 14.
The North African country’s weekend has long been held on Thursday-Friday to accommodate Friday prayers.
Algerian firms, however, can only conduct international business internationally from Monday to Wednesday, an arrangement which a study by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank found to cost the country between $500 and $700 million annually.
“The change is a result of economic needs expressed by foreign and national companies to upgrade the weekend with their partners abroad,” Amel Boubekeur, Associate Scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told The Media Line.
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“The Algerian economy is based on oil and gas; they are very connected to the rest of the world. They are trying to attract more foreign companies to Algeria and sell their products.”
Friday is a holy day in Islam, and historically Muslim countries have honored it by having a Saturday-Wednesday workweek. However, in efforts to be more in line with business partners in Europe, Asia, and the United States, many Muslim countries have opted to alter their traditional weekend.
In 2007 Kuwait shifted to a Friday-Saturday weekend to bolster relations with the international business community.
Boubekeur argued that the new weekend system, which deviates from fellow oil-rich Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, will not cause major rifts among the religious community.
“It’s not avery controversial issue,” she said. “Because they are maintaining the day of the prayer.”
Boubekeur noted that most Algerians had no idea that this change was to occur.
“The government is supposed to take a set of measures to accompany this decision, not just decide that they are going to have a new weekend in Algeria without having an information campaign,” she said.
“Economically speaking it’s a good decision, but people haven’t been involved,” she added. “It remains to be seen how people are going to react.”
Boubekeur explained that because Algeria hasn’t made efforts to inform the public of the change – which will undoubtedly affect the country both culturally and economically – there may be some reluctance when the new weekend is implemented in August.
“It may take some time for the civil society to get used to the weekend,” she said. “But Algeria needs to be much more connected to the international financial world because it can’t go on being a rentier state.”