Singapore's prime minister of 14 years, Goh Chok Tong, bid farewell to the nation on Sunday in an address that identified some of his successor's main challenges from a chronic baby shortage to jobs vanishing to China.
"The responsibility of taking our nation further will now rest on the shoulders of the next generation of leaders," said Goh, who hands power on Thursday to his 52-year-old deputy, Lee Hsien Loong, son of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
"Hsien Loong and his team will face different and tougher challenges ahead," Goh said in an annual National Day speech, his last as prime minister, a day before the Southeast Asian island's 39th birthday since independence from Malaysia.
Political transitions are rare in Singapore. There has only been one in the past 39 years - when Goh took over from Lee Kuan Yew in 1990. But most economists and political analysts expect no major changes in the way the wealthy city-state is run. They do expect a difference in style, however.