Calling it a waste of time to ask guests to be present much earlier than the dignitaries, he said it could affect the nation’s productivity.

“When I look at the itinerary (of today’s programme), the prime minister’s arrival is at 1pm, but the guests’ arrival is at noon.

“Why so early? What’s the purpose of that one-hour gap? So I ask all government departments to please make some changes.

“I arrived at 1.03pm, but when I looked at the programme, the guests arrived an hour earlier.

“Therefore, consider this as an instruction … 10 minutes or 15 minutes before the scheduled event is fine.

“There’s no need for guests to be asked to arrive so early because it’s a waste of time and affects national productivity.”

Anwar was speaking during a Ramah Mesra Madani programme at Universiti Teknologi Petronas here.