Employees across the UAE’s federal government and private sector will receive an official public holiday on Friday, August 28, 2026, to mark the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), according to an announcement by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE).

The holiday will apply to eligible employees in both the federal government and private sector, providing a day off to observe the religious occasion.

MoHRE confirmed the holiday through its official social media channel, announcing that Friday, August 28, will be observed as the Prophet’s Birthday holiday this year.

Read more-From August to December: The UAE public holidays residents should be watching

The Prophet’s Birthday, also known as Mawlid Al Nabi, is among the official public holidays recognised in the UAE and is observed annually across the country.

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Unified holiday framework

The announcement aligns with the UAE’s unified public holiday framework, under which the Prophet’s Birthday is designated as a one-day holiday for employees in both the public and private sectors.

Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024 concerning public holidays specifies 12 Rabi’ Al Awal as the official holiday marking the Prophet’s Birthday and allocates one day off for the occasion.

The resolution forms part of the UAE’s broader effort to harmonise public holiday schedules across government entities and private businesses, creating greater consistency for employees working across different sectors of the economy.

For private-sector employees, official holiday announcements are issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, while holidays for federal ministries and government entities are typically announced by the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources.

The unified framework has helped align holiday calendars for public- and private-sector employees, ensuring a more consistent approach to nationally recognised holidays.

Potential long weekend for many employees

With the holiday falling on a Friday this year, many employees who follow a standard Monday-to-Friday workweek could enjoy an extended weekend from Friday through Sunday before returning to work on Monday.

However, working arrangements may vary depending on an employee’s industry, employer and standard work schedule. Businesses operating on different shift patterns or alternative workweeks may apply their own staffing arrangements in line with applicable labour regulations.

MoHRE’s announcement provides businesses and employees with advance notice of the official holiday, allowing organisations to plan operations while enabling workers to prepare for the religious observance and the extended weekend where applicable.

As the industry races towards digital-first, Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has kept its branches and 24/7 contact centre alongside innovations like SIB Pay and a screen-reader-enabled app, a UAE first. Nabil Abou Alwan, the bank’s head of retail banking, explains how SIB is building an omnichannel experience designed for ease and inclusion.

What does accessibility mean to SIB beyond having a good app?

At Sharjah Islamic Bank, accessibility goes far beyond digital convenience. It means ensuring that every customer, regardless of age, ability, language, or level of digital confidence, can access our services seamlessly through the channel that best suits their needs, whether that’s our mobile app, branches, contact centre, self-service channels, or dedicated relationship managers.

We view technology as an enabler that removes barriers rather than creates them. That’s why SIB became the first bank in the UAE to integrate a screen reader into its mobile banking application, making digital banking more accessible for customers with visual disabilities and reinforcing our commitment to inclusive banking.

Accessibility also means designing simple products, intuitive customer journeys, and frictionless onboarding, while ensuring expert support is always available. Our vision is to deliver an outstanding banking experience where every customer can bank with confidence, convenience, and peace of mind.

Who is most at risk of being left behind by digital-first banking and what does SIB do differently?

Different customer segments have different needs. Some customers embrace digital banking immediately, while others, including senior customers, newcomers, or People of Determination, may require additional guidance or tailored support.

Our strategy is built on inclusion rather than forcing customers towards a single way of banking. We provide intuitive digital experiences, assisted onboarding, multilingual support, self-service options, a 24/7 contact centre, and a strong branch network, allowing customers to choose how they interact with us.

Innovation should expand access, not limit it. By combining leading digital capabilities with personalised human support, we ensure every customer can benefit from modern banking at their own pace.

You’ve launched SIB Pay and digital onboarding, yet kept your branch network and 24/7 call centre. How do you balance investment between digital and human channels?

At SIB, we don’t see digital and human channels as competing priorities; they complement one another. We continue to invest heavily in digital innovation through initiatives such as SIB Pay, seamless digital onboarding, and intelligent self-service capabilities because customers increasingly expect speed, convenience, and anytime access.

At the same time, we continue investing in our branch network, relationship managers, and 24/7 customer support because many banking decisions still benefit from personal interaction, expert advice, and trusted relationships.

The future of banking is omnichannel. Customers should enjoy the same exceptional experience whether they bank through their smartphone, speak with us over the phone, or visit one of our branches. Our objective is to provide innovation without losing the personal touch that has always distinguished SIB.

Islamic banking places a strong emphasis on transparency and clarity. How does SIB ensure customers fully understand its products before making decisions?

Transparency is one of the foundations of Islamic banking and remains central to everything we do at SIB. We design our products and customer journeys so that terms, obligations, pricing, and financial commitments are communicated clearly and simply before any decision is made. Our digital platforms intuitively present information, while our experienced teams remain available to answer questions and provide personalised guidance whenever customers need it.

Beyond product transparency, we see financial education as an important responsibility. Helping customers make informed financial decisions builds long-term trust and strengthens our relationship with them.

How do you measure genuine accessibility beyond app downloads and adoption rates?

Technology only creates value when customers can use it effortlessly. Rather than focusing solely on downloads, we measure how easily customers complete their banking journeys, the quality of their overall experience, and how effectively we remove friction across every touchpoint.

We continuously monitor customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score (NPS), successful digital onboarding, journey completion, straight-through processing, service availability, complaint trends, and direct customer feedback.

These insights allow us to continuously refine our products and services. Our commitment is simple: every year, customers should experience banking that is faster, simpler, more personalised, and even more accessible than before.

UAE banking serves customers from dozens of nationalities and languages. How does SIB handle language and cultural accessibility?

The UAE’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths, and our banking experience is designed to reflect that. Accessibility also involves communication, understanding, and building trust across different cultures and customer expectations.

We strive to ensure every customer feels welcomed, understood, and valued through clear communication, multilingual support, accessible service channels, and knowledgeable teams that appreciate the needs of a diverse community.

Whether customers choose digital banking or prefer visiting one of our branches, they can expect the same high standards of professionalism, service excellence, and personalised care.

Banking complaints often centre on fine print and unexpected fees. What has SIB changed to make things clearer?

Trust begins with clarity. We continuously review our customer communications, product documentation, and disclosures to make them simpler, more transparent, and easier to understand. Our objective is to ensure customers clearly understand what they are signing up for before making any financial commitment.

We’ve also strengthened our digital notifications and confirmations so customers receive timely, transparent information throughout their banking journey.

Innovation is about introducing new technology and creating better customer experiences. By listening closely to customer feedback, we continuously refine our products, communications, and processes to minimise complexity, eliminate surprises, and deliver the transparency customers rightly expect.

Across all our initiatives, our ambition is clear: to be one of the UAE’s most innovative Islamic banks by combining cutting-edge digital capabilities with exceptional human service.

We invest continuously in technologies that anticipate and exceed customer expectations while preserving the trusted relationships that remain at the heart of banking. Whether customers engage with us through our award-winning digital channels, our contact centre, or our branch network, they receive the same high standard of expertise, transparency, and personalised service.

For us, the future of banking is not digital or human, but the seamless integration of both. By combining innovation, inclusion, and service excellence, SIB is creating a banking experience that is simpler, smarter, and more accessible for every customer.

Chinese technology company Tencent has begun the international rollout of its Hy3 foundation model as it seeks to help enterprises deploy artificial intelligence applications across multiple platforms and markets.

Hy3 is an open-source large language model designed for reasoning, coding, instruction-following and AI-agent applications. It uses a Mixture-of-Experts architecture, with 295 billion total parameters and 21 billion active parameters, and supports a context window of up to 256,000 tokens.

The model combines fast and more deliberate reasoning processes, which Tencent said could improve performance while controlling the computing costs associated with deploying large AI systems.

Hy3 is available under the commercially friendly Apache 2.0 licence, allowing developers and organisations to download, use and modify it. The model has also been made available through open-source communities including Hugging Face and ModelScope. Tencent officially launched Hy3 on July 6.

Enterprise AI deployment

Hy3 has been integrated into several Tencent products and services, including WorkBuddy and CodeBuddy, as well as the company’s Yuanbao, Marvis and ima platforms.

WorkBuddy allows users to perform workplace tasks using natural-language instructions and switch between AI models depending on the requirements of different workflows.

The Hy3 application programming interface is available through Tencent Cloud TokenHub, a model-as-a-service platform that enables organisations to access and manage multiple large language models through a single interface.

Tencent said the platform’s model-routing and governance capabilities were intended to support multi-model strategies and reduce companies’ dependence on a single AI provider.

The company plans to make Hy3 progressively available through international developer platforms including OpenRouter, Hermes, Kilo, Cline, OpenClaw, OpenCode and Cherry Studio.

Tencent Cloud operates a global network spanning 66 availability zones, which the company said would support the secure deployment and scaling of enterprise AI applications.

Focus shifts to business value

The launch comes as governments and companies across the Gulf invest in data centres, cloud computing and sovereign AI infrastructure.

Enterprises are increasingly turning their attention from experimentation towards practical deployment, where challenges can include data quality, governance, operating costs and dependence on individual technology providers.

Tencent is positioning Hy3 as a model that can be integrated into enterprise systems while giving organisations greater control over deployment and model selection.

The international rollout also builds on Tencent Cloud’s Agent Development Platform, which is designed to help companies develop, deploy and govern AI agents at scale.

Tencent has deployed AI across its own businesses, including the Weixin ecosystem, advertising, gaming and customer-service applications. The company said Hy3 had improved the ability of customer-service assistants to interpret incomplete questions and use earlier conversation context to provide more relevant responses.

In gaming, the model has been integrated into an AI assistant for Path of Exile: Advent on Tencent’s WeGame platform, where it is being used to improve responses to player requests and reduce inaccurate answers.

The Ministry of Finance has announced a new decision introducing a minimum Excise Price for liquids used in Electronic Smoking Devices and Tools, effective September 1, 2026.

The move is part of the UAE’s efforts to enhance the implementation of excise tax regulations and support compliance with the country’s tax legislation, a WAM report said.

Under the decision, the current minimum Excise Price will continue to apply to Cigarettes, Water Pipe Tobacco, ready-to-use tobacco products, and other similar products.

The Ministry has introduced a minimum Excise Price of Dhs1 per millilitre for liquids used in Electronic Smoking Devices and Tools.

Decision supports evolving excise market framework

The ministry said the measure aims to keep pace with developments in the excise goods market while ensuring consistent application of unified standards across different categories of tobacco and electronic smoking products.

The decision is also designed to strengthen tax compliance and reduce practices that could impact the effective implementation of the excise tax system.

The UAE applies an excise tax rate of 100 per cent on all tobacco products covered under the excise tax regime.