Re-introducing Sunday as weekly holiday

Bangladesh is a developing country with an estimated population of 163.6 million whose estimated gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) stands at $324.6 billion for 2013. In the last decade we have taken big strides in socio-economic development, education and population despite political instability. The scale of improvement in the lives of the common people is a testament to the ingenuity and determination of the people of Bangladesh to succeed.
We live in a globalised world. For example, the garment industry, which is responsible for generating enormous amount of foreign currency for the country, has to interact with buyers and suppliers who are based in multiple jurisdictions worldwide. Given the inter-connectedness of the supply chain, each and every hour matters for such an industry. There are support industries, financial institutions, shipping corporations, etc. which rely on the trade that is generated by the garment industry to make their income. It is no wonder that each working day generates millions of dollars of revenue for the Bangladesh population and the state. This begs the question: Why do we choose to have a public holiday on Friday, when our trading partners abroad are busy working away and take rest on Sunday?
We are a developing nation and we are an active participant in the world economy. This means that we have to be mindful of the needs of our business partners' just as much as we have to pay heed to our own.
When Friday was introduced as weekly holiday, the economy of Bangladesh was relatively small and we did not have to engage with business partners in multiple jurisdictions. Given that most of our buyers and suppliers, most notably the USA, the European Union and China, do not consider Friday as a public holiday, it would be in the best interest of the people of Bangladesh to alter our work week from Sunday through to Thursday to Monday through to Friday.
There are multiple reasons for making this suggestion. The most significant one is economic. If we alter our work week so that it is in line with most of our foreign partners then it would provide a huge boost to our income because it would ensure that we will be able to interact and carry out trade with our business partners outside Bangladesh for one extra day. The economic cost of not being operational on Friday is so immense that businesses and people have been obliged to make adjustments to accommodate the hurdles that are created by having Friday as a public holiday.
If we make Sunday, instead of Friday, our public holiday, we would also be saving a huge amount of resources - financial and human. Lots of people have to stay close to their smart-phones on Fridays and have to keep an eye on emails and paperwork, even though they should be on a break. This means that people are unable to use the free time that they have to relax and unwind, leading to increased work-related stress. Furthermore, the same people spend the entire Sunday at their office twiddling their thumbs because none of their business partners abroad are working on Sunday. This is a complete waste of time for these people because they have to spend the whole day at the office with little to do. If we factor in the financial cost of keeping an office operational for a whole day when few are actually engaged in any substantial economic activity, one wonders whether it would be possible to devise a creative solution that would enable people to attend juma prayers on Fridays while ensuring that we utilise our resources more efficiently and generate more income.
Here is a suggestion. First, we re-classify Friday as a working day and Sunday as a public holiday. In order to facilitate people to attend juma prayers on Fridays, we should adopt a forty-five minutes lunch policy from Monday through to Thursday instead of the standard one-hour lunch, and provide a two-hour lunch for Friday. The lunch time that we save by taking a shorter lunch form Monday through to Thursday will be allocated to Friday to facilitate attendance at juma prayers.  
The government may take into consideration the changes in the socio-economic condition of Bangladesh and implement a creative solution to resolve the challenges we face. We are a relatively poor country, and we should try to implement any change that will increase our income and make us more productive without compromising our socio-cultural heritage.
 mr.kazi.rahman@gmail.com