PHP using AWS Secrets Manager (is too slow)

<?php

 /* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Create a file in root directory, called: composer.json
    with the following content:
{
    "require": {
        "aws/aws-sdk-php": "*"
    }
}
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- */

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Aws\SecretsManager\SecretsManagerClient; 
use Aws\Exception\AwsException;

//Create a Secrets Manager Client 
$client = new SecretsManagerClient([
    
 /* ---------------------------------------------
    NOTE:  Credentials come from IAM ... being given to a specific EC2
           role ... that is the role of the machine running this code
    --------------------------------------------- */
    'version' => '2017-10-17',
    'region'  => 'ap-southeast-1'

]);

$secretName = 'xxaaabbb';
//$description = "Token for ajax calls";
//$secret = random_bytes(32);

try {
    
$time1 = microtime(true);

    $result = $client->getSecretValue([
        'SecretId' => $secretName,
    ]);

$time2 = microtime(true);
echo 'script execution time: ' . ($time2 - $time1) . PHP_EOL; //value in seconds    

} catch (AwsException $e) {
    $error = $e->getAwsErrorCode();
    if ($error == 'DecryptionFailureException') {
        // Secrets Manager can't decrypt the protected secret text using the provided AWS KMS key.
        // Handle the exception here, and/or rethrow as needed.
        throw $e;
    }
    if ($error == 'InternalServiceErrorException') {
        // An error occurred on the server side.
        // Handle the exception here, and/or rethrow as needed.
        throw $e;
    }
    if ($error == 'InvalidParameterException') {
        // You provided an invalid value for a parameter.
        // Handle the exception here, and/or rethrow as needed.
        throw $e;
    }
    if ($error == 'InvalidRequestException') {
        // You provided a parameter value that is not valid for the current state of the resource.
        // Handle the exception here, and/or rethrow as needed.
        throw $e;
    }
    if ($error == 'ResourceNotFoundException') {
        // We can't find the resource that you asked for.
        // Handle the exception here, and/or rethrow as needed.
        throw $e;
    }
}
// Decrypts secret using the associated KMS CMK.
// Depending on whether the secret is a string or binary, one of these fields will be populated.
if (isset($result['SecretString'])) {
    $secret = $result['SecretString'];
    echo $secret;
} else {
    echo "RESULT IS BINARY";
    $secret = $result['SecretBinary'];
    echo bin2hex($secret) . PHP_EOL;
    echo "---------------------------";
    echo "length is: " . strlen($secret);
}