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Singapore PM Lee says finance minister Wong will be his successor
The 49-year-old Wong, once Lee's principal private secretary, is seen assuming the post after Singapore's next general election, expected in 2025.
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Singapore’s National Development Minister Lawrence Wong speaks during a press conference on coronavirus situation in Singapore on January 27, 2020. Singapore have four case of the coronavirus. All four patients had arrived in the city-state from Wuhan over the last week. (Agence France Presse/Roslan Rahman)
S
ingaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday that ministers of his cabinet have chosen Finance Minister Lawrence Wong as his future successor.
The 49-year-old Wong, once Lee's principal private secretary, is seen assuming the post after Singapore's next general election, expected in 2025.
Lee said in a Facebook post that Wong has been chosen as the "new leader of the 4G team," referring to the fourth generation of the ruling People's Action Party.
The PAP has ruled Singapore since the island city-state became an independent nation in 1965.
Wong was among three younger cabinet ministers viewed as potential candidates to be the next prime minister. The two others were Education Minister Chan Chun Sing and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.
Lee, who turned 70 in February, had said a few years ago that he has no plan to continue being prime minister after he turns 70.
The announcement on the succession had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, then 4G leader, stepping out of the race in April last year.
Wong has been co-chairing Singapore's multi-ministerial task force on COVID-19. He studied economics in the United States at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and public administration at Harvard Kennedy School.
