SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP)

— Singapore will swear in Lawrence Wong on Wednesday as the city-state’s new prime minister, as Lee Hsien Loong steps down after two decades in office.

Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, will become the second non-member of the Lee family to lead the affluent nation when he is inaugurated at 8 p.m. local time.

The 51-year-old, United States-educated economist is widely seen as a social media-savvy stalwart who effectively handled the Covid-19 crisis when he oversaw the government’s pandemic taskforce.

“He brings a style of leadership that’s more attuned to a different generation,” said Mustafa Izzuddin, a political analyst with consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore.

“The core principle of what Singapore is about will remain because it is a system that has worked for many years. But I think his style may be slightly different because he comes from a different generation.”

Wong, who was also finance minister, had been selected as Lee’s heir-apparent in 2022 from a new generation of lawmakers from the People’s Action Party (PAP) which has ruled uninterrupted since independence in 1965.

Wong, who becomes the fourth prime minister in Singapore’s history, must lead the PAP to the next general elections, which are not due until November 2025 but could be called as early as this year.