Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong submits resignation

In the letter, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong nominated Mr. Lawrence Wong (51 years old), Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore to replace him as Prime Minister from May 15, starting the 4th generation of leadership of the "Lion Island". President Tharman Shanmugaratnam accepted Mr. Lee Hsien Loong's resignation and said he would appoint Mr. Wong as Prime Minister and form a new government.

On the same day, Mr. Lawrence Wong announced some changes in the Cabinet of this Southeast Asian country. Minister of Trade Gan Kim Yong (65 years old) will be assigned the additional responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Gan Kim Yong will also take on the position of Chairman of the Central Bank of Singapore.

Two years ago, Lawrence Wong was selected as the leader of the fourth generation of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore, paving the way for him to become the country's next generation Prime Minister.

Mr. Wong comes from a working-class family, with his father working as a sales manager for a private company and his mother as a teacher. After completing his studies in the United States on a scholarship from the Singapore Government, he returned to Vietnam to work for the government in 1997.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong served as the Director of the Singapore Energy Market Authority and then as Private Secretary to Lee Hsien Loong. He was elected to Parliament in 2011 and appointed Minister of State for Education and Defence. He was re-elected as a member of Parliament in the 2015 and 2020 general elections and held various ministerial positions. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, he was chosen as Co-Chairman of the COVID-19 Response Committee and has increasingly gained the trust of Singaporeans. Experts consider this a period that created an important boost for Mr. Wong's political career.