SINGAPORE (Nov 23): Singapore is expected to tap Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat as the de facto successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday, kicking off the city-state’s third leadership transition in its 53-year history.

Heng, 57, will be named first assistant secretary-general -- widely seen as second in command to Lee -- when the ruling People’s Action Party announces new office holders on Friday, the Today newspaper reported on Thursday, citing unidentified party sources. Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing, 49, will be the second assistant secretary-general, the paper said. A People’s Action Party spokesman declined to comment.

Lee, 66, has signalled he intends to hand over the premiership by the time he turns 70 in 2022 -- a year after the country’s next general elections are due. The People’s Action Party has ruled Singapore since Lee Kuan Yew led the country out of its political union with neighboring Malaysia in 1965, and Lee and his son have held the post of prime minister in all but 14 years of its independence.

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