Singapore’s new Key Minister Lawrence Wong (2nd R) shakes hands with now senior minister Lee Hsien Loong (2nd L) throughout the swearing-in ceremony at the Istana in Singapore on May possibly 15, 2024. Lawrence Wong was sworn in on Could 15 as Singapore’s new key minister, following Lee Hsien Loong stepped down pursuing two a long time in business office.
Edgar Su | Afp | Getty Photographs
SINGAPORE — Singapore’s Lawrence Wong was inaugurated as the metropolis-state’s fourth key minister on Wednesday, taking more than from former primary minister Lee Hsien Loong, who has led Singapore for 20 several years.
Lee will remain on as senior minister in Wong’s new cabinet, which was declared on Monday, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
The new key minister will also be supported by two deputies. Trade and market minister Gan Kim Yong will be promoted to deputy prime minister and do the job together with present-day DPM Heng Swee Keat.
“I have recognized each Kim Yong and Swee Keat for numerous a long time. I worth their information and counsel,” Wong reported earlier this 7 days.
Gan will also get in excess of as chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central financial institution and money regulator.
Wong was in civil services for 15 several years just before he entered politics in 2011. “This is my contacting, I resolved that getting in general public services is what I would like to do,” Wong stated Tuesday in an interview with regional media.
“I have been in politics considering that then… practically 30 decades of community company. I do not regret that at all. I uncovered the journey really meaningful, incredibly satisfying.”
It was throughout the Covid-19 pandemic that Wong rose to political prominence, steering Singapore by means of the disaster along with Gan and present-day wellness minister Ong Ye Kung.
Wong will keep his recent post as finance minister. Other promotions and appointments have been also announced, but there were no big changes to the ministers helming each individual ministry.
“Continuity and steadiness are important concerns, primarily as we are approaching the close of this expression of authorities,” Wong has explained.
Lee, the eldest son of Singapore’s founding Primary Minister Lee Kuan Yew, declared last thirty day period he will hand around electric power to the new prime minister in mid-Could.
He had stated in 2023 that he would like Wong to thrive him just before November this year, soon after possessing already delayed his retirement programs due to the Covid pandemic.
To start with publish independence PM
Wong, who is 51, is the country’s first chief born just after its independence in 1965.
He initial entered politics in Singapore following the 2011 common election, possessing invested time at several federal government organizations ahead of his political debut. He held ministerial positions in four Singapore ministries, and led equally the countrywide advancement and schooling ministries.
Wong also served as principal personal secretary to then primary minister Lee Hsien Loong from 2005 to 2008.
The political transition has been meticulously orchestrated for several years.
In April 2022, Wong was picked as the chief of the ruling People’s Action Party’s so-called fourth era leadership, putting him as the heir apparent to Lee.
He was appointed deputy primary minister in June 2022, keeping the position concurrently with his finance ministry portfolio.
With the handover, Wong will be foremost the ruling People’s Motion Celebration into the next standard election, which have to be referred to as by November 2025.
Improve of guard just after 20 several years
Lee, who entered politics in 1984, has pledged to do his ideal to enable Wong but has pointed out that the new prime minister would have to lead in his own way.
“You have to be your own individual. You have to make the conclusions. You have to guide in your personal way, persuade individuals in your have way but I will give you the profit of my experience and my sights,” Lee claimed in his last interview with regional media as prime minister.
Even though distinct guidelines will have to be undertaken by the prime minister, “if he arrows me to do it, I will choose the arrow,” Lee quipped, employing a Singaporean expression to explain becoming delegated to do a undertaking.
Lee turned primary minister in 2004, using over from then prime minister Goh Chok Tong.
Throughout his tenure, he saw the nation state by way of activities like the 2008 worldwide economic disaster, the Covid-19 pandemic, as effectively as the elder Lee’s loss of life in 2015, which induced a general public outpouring of grief.
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