Lee Leaves Legacy of Growth as Singapore Confronts Aging Threat

Lee Kuan Yew inherited a thriving port and a young and underemployed workforce, ingredients that helped forge Southeast Asia’s only developed nation by luring factories and boosting exports. His son got an aging workforce with some of the highest wages in the region and the task of finding a new model for Singapore.

Lee, the country’s first premier who died March 23 at 91, opened Singapore to foreign investment while running a tightly-controlled state that emphasized incorruptibility and stability. The recipe helped produce Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, one of the most globally recognized airlines, and a city that ranks among the world’s most expensive.