PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has covered three bilateral and business meetings and one forum at two separate venues during the first five hours of his two-day Apec sojourn here.
The 93-year-old Prime Minister started his hectic first-day itinerary with a 30-minute speech at the Apec CEO Summit.
Speaking onboard Pacific Explorer cruise ship, Dr Mahathir spoke about how the 21 Pacific Rim countries that form Apec can become irrelevant if it did not adjust to changes from disruptive technology.
Still on the cruise ship, he later had a 40-minute business meeting with representatives from some big and famous US companies. They included Google, FedEx, UPS, Johnson & Johnson and Moody's.
Dr Mahathir was then driven to Stanley Hotel, about 10 minutes from where Pacific Explorer is moored, for two bilateral meetings.
First was with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose father, -the then Canadian premier Pièrre Elliot Trudeau, had brought the young Justin to meet Dr Mahathir in 1982.
Trudeau became Canada's youngest prime minister in 2015, while Dr Mahathir became the world's oldest premier following Pakatan Harapan's victory in the general election in May this year.
Dr Mahathir and Trudeau spent half an hour about socio and economic ties between the two countries.
Dr Mahathir wrapped up his bilateral assignment with a 30-minute meeting with Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.
He thanked Hong Kong for providing scholarships to some 400 Malaysian students to study there over the years.
Lam, meanwhile, told Dr Mahathir that she likes visiting Malaysia especially Penang.
"I love going to Penang for holidays. It's such a nice city," she remarked.