But in today's age of spectacular communication and information technology, the trade and commerce actually takes no break be they weekdays or weekends. And, whether we have the weekend on Friday or Sunday or even Wednesday, it should not make much difference. Many companies are working round the clock with a global workforce that uses modern information technology. They are creating miracles even though they are following different work and holiday schedules.

We are half a day off the West due to our geographical location and we have many other holidays, which will not match with Western holidays. We can not do anything about those.

Ninety per cent of our population being Muslims, weekend on Friday is actually more efficient in Bangladesh. Then people would not have to take an extended break for the Jumaa prayer on Friday, which actually would essentially spoil a working day. (Imagine how it would be in the West if for some reason Sunday would be a working day with a 2 hour break for church service).

It would be far more effective for us in boosting our trade and commerce overseas if we focus our attention to improving our product and service qualities, reduce corruption, follow business ethics and improve overall competence in every field. Developing our manpower with quality education; improving our infrastructure (including the information technology); creating security and accountability in our trade and commerce; are what we need badly in order to better compete in today's world. Faulting the present weekly holiday with inconveniences is nothing but a display of our usual tendency to finding an excuse for a failure. It also speaks of our inability to pick up the courage to confront the issues.