Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) yesterday said that Singaporean Minister of Finance Lawrence Wong (黃循財) would succeed him as the city-state’s leader.
Wong was chosen as leader of the ruling People’s Action Party’s (PAP) so-called fourth generation team, the party said in a statement on Thursday, paving the way for him to become prime minister.
“The plan is for Lawrence to succeed me as PM, either before or after the next general election” given that the PAP wins, Lee said yesterday.
Photo: Reuters / Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee / Action Images
“It is due in 2025 and will surely be a tough fight,” Lee added.
Lee — whose father, Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), was Singapore’s prime minister from 1959 until 1990 — has led the country’s since 2004.
Stability has long been one of Singapore’s major strengths, making it a haven for investors and businesses in a region where political upheaval is not uncommon.
Wong, 49, who helped steer the city-state through the COVID-19 pandemic as cochair of the Singaporean government’s pandemic task force, had been tipped by analysts as a potential successor to 70-year-old Lee Hsien Loong.
Leadership succession in the country, governed by the PAP since its 1965 independence, is normally a carefully planned affair, but an unexpected decision last year by Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat (王瑞傑) to step aside as Lee Hsien Loong’s designated successor disrupted leadership planning.
“I am already 70 and I am looking forward to handing over to Lawrence once he is ready,” Lee Hsien Loong told a news conference.
He said they would later decide whether he or Wong would lead the party into the next general election.
Emerging from travel curbs and strict regulations that made it a pandemic success story, Singapore is vying to retain and build on its status as a hub of international commerce.
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