Singapore will inaugurate Lawrence Wong on Wednesday as its new prime minister and fourth leader since independence six decades ago, completing a carefully calibrated power transfer designed to guarantee continuity in the wealthy city-state.

Wong, 51, comes from among a crop of so-called “4G” leaders, a new generation of politicians hand-picked by the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) to take over the reins of the key Asian trade and financial center.

Wong will retain his current position as finance minister and take charge of a country led for two decades by Lee Hsien Loong, the 72-year-old son of Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore who stayed in politics until he died in 2015.

The succession has been long coming, with Lee’s plans of stepping down before he turned 70 upended by the pandemic, and by a transition fumble when his anointed successor unexpectedly ruled himself out of the running,  in 2021.