KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly 80 percent of the costs for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's official visits to five countries over the past two months were covered by private companies, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
During the Prime Minister's Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat, Anwar stated that part of the costs were also borne by private companies involved in the meetings abroad.
The prime minister said this approach was one of the measures introduced under his administration to ensure the efficient management of expenses for official overseas visits.
"We did things differently recently, as I noticed that travel costs were often quite high.
"Hence, what we did this time was work with the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz).
"We also invited companies such as Petronas, Sapura Energy, and Proton, among others, to join the delegation, where they covered the airfare and associated costs.
"(And) if I am not mistaken, around 70 or 80 per cent of the flight costs were borne by companies with business and investment interests," he said in response to Datuk Mohd Shahar Abdullah (BN-Paya Besar) on the costs incurred during his recent overseas trips.
Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said the final total of the flight costs has yet to be detailed as he just came back from his visits, yesterday.
"However, the costs were indeed high as the trips were from Kuala Lumpur to Cairo, Riyadh, Lima, Rio de Janeiro and Doha.
"It was three continents, but 75 per cent of the costs were covered by the involved companies," he said.
Earlier this month, Anwar undertook a working visit to China from Nov 4 until 7, following the invitation of his counterpart, Premier Li Qiang to attend the 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.
He then went to Beijing for a courtesy call with President Xi Jinping.
After the visit to China, Anwar visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Brazil from Nov 9 to 19 to strengthen strategic cooperation and generate significant investment potential for Malaysia.
During the trip, he led the Malaysian delegation to the 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Week (AELW) in Peru and the G20 Summit in Brazil.