I accept this responsibility with humility and a deep sense of duty.

Lawrence Wong, Singapore's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, will take over from Lee H Long later this month.

Every ounce of my energy shall be devoted to the service of our country and our people.

Mr Wong will be just the fourth Prime Minister since 1965, the year that Singapore gained independence from Malaysia. And among the challenges he faces protecting the island's economic progress amid increasingly tricky relations between China and the West. The Economist's foreign editor, Patrick Fowles, spoke to Mr Wong earlier this week to discuss the future of Singapore, its model for government, and the risks that lie ahead. Hello.

Hey, great. Hello. Lawrence. Patrick Fowles. met Mr Wong in a beautiful room overlooking the skyline in Singapore, which is a mixture of really old colonial buildings and hyper-modern architecture in the financial centre. And I wanted to find out what his prime ministership would mean for the country and how he was going to change Singapore compared

to what his predecessors did. I will be the first prime minister to be born after Singapore's independence. All my predecessors sang two, if not three, other national anthem. I've only sung one national anthem, Majula Singapore, our national anthem.

At 51 years old, Mr Wong was born seven years into Singapore's existence as a nation. And he'll be the fourth prime minister since independence for Singapore.

Patrick, tell me a bit about Mr Wong. What was he like?

Well, I think he's much more of a humble figure compared to some of the prime ministers Singapore's had in the past. He's much more accessible and also has a more typical background. So he went to his local school in Singapore rather than one of the elite schools.

My background is what it is. I mean, if it's helpful, if it makes it more relatable to Singaporeans, so much the better.

He grew up on one of the city's public housing estates, which are where most Singaporeans live. After studying in Singapore, he went to university in the States, and he's spoken fondly about his time busking on American streets during his university years, and in fact has also become known for doing guitar solos on social media. So an everyman in many ways. Mr Wong's ascendancy means that for the first time in the country's modern history, there is no member of the Lee family either in charge or waiting in the wings. Mr Wong believes he can live up to his predecessors.

I believe when push comes to shove and time comes to take hard decisions, I will do so, so long as the decision is in the interest of Singapore and Singaporeans.

In one dimension, Singapore is still an exemplar, and that's the economy. It's a combination of being open, embracing change and technology, and trying to be as smart as possible with government decision making. The more contentious bit of Singapore is its political system, which remains something rather different from a full fat Western style democracy. The

latest democracy index from our sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit, classifies Singapore as a flawed democracy. Patrick, do you see Mr Wong strengthening Singapore's democratic principles? Mr

Wong's People's Action Party has been the dominant force in Singaporean politics for six decades and ruled continuously, but its level of control has relaxed a bit. a first for any opposition group in the country's history. And it has roughly a tenth of seats in Parliament, and the opposition in total has around 40% of votes. So it's got some weight. So there is a sense in which politics, while not a multi-party system, are more contestable than in the past.

While the majority today would like the PAP to be in power, to be in government, they would also like to see more opposition voices in parliament. So the opposition presence in parliament is here to stay. It's quite clear. But

at the same time, the current outgoing Prime Minister, Lee, is likely to play some role in decision making. Well,

this is a Singapore tradition. I mean, you don't find this commonly in other countries, but it's a longstanding Singapore tradition, and we found it very valuable.

Mr Wong launched a policy called Forward Singapore in the last couple of years, which has a really large-scale engagement of citizens, about 200,000 people participated. That conversation still has limits and perhaps Mr Wong will go further during his time in office. We will have to do our best

to engage Singaporeans. We will have to do our best to involve them in decisions that they care deeply about and in shaping our future. Mr Wong

told me the next generation holds high democratic expectations.

If myself, my team, we are unable to meet up to those high expectations, if we are unable to deliver those standards and a better team arises, then Singaporeans will choose accordingly. I have no doubt about that. So I think

what's happening in Singapore is you've got a dynamic, hyper-rich, hyper-modern society that's undergoing more change. And that means I think the government has to be more accountable to how public opinion is shifting.

What other challenges is Mr Wong facing? Well,

Singapore had a kind of golden era where as a trading centre with a growing population, it was able to grow really fast in the era of globalization. And what's happening now is some of those underlying factors are heading in the opposite direction. So the world economy is now less trade-centric than it was. And at the same time, the number of working age citizens is forecast to decline by several hundred thousand to about 1.9 million by 2030. And what that means is higher health care costs. And at the same time, it means it needs growth in the workforce to keep expanding the economy. And that's where migration comes in.