Tesla’s Elon Musk praises Singapore’s ‘brilliant’ first PM Lee Kuan Yew for Changi Airport

This is not the first time Musk has lauded the late prime minister. He previously called Lee a “genius” for installing air-conditioning units in public service buildings to boost productivity in the humid, tropical country.

Lee served as prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and died in 2015.

Here are three things to know about the man credited for building up the prosperous Southeast Asian country:

Before Singapore’s Changi Airport became operational in 1981, the island state had a small commercial airport located inland on the east side of Singapore, called Paya Lebar Airport.

While efforts had begun to expand Paya Lebar Airport, Lee envisioned a much bigger airport located on the coast of the island, which could be expanded in the future by reclaiming land from the sea.

“By mid 1970s, it was clear that Paya Lebar Airport would not be able to cope with the growing traffic for much longer,” Lee said in 2006, at Changi Airport’s 25th anniversary dinner. “We needed a bigger airport, with at least two runways.”

The new Changi Airport was planned to be five times bigger than its predecessor. And Lee wanted the airport to be an extension of Singapore’s image as a garden city, The Business Times reported in 2015.

He wanted a lot of trees planted and said that he wished to “see a jungle” when driving from the city to the airport, located on the island’s easternmost tip.

As of 2024, the airport has four functioning terminals, with a fifth expected to open in the mid 2030s.

Singapore also holds the spot of Asia’s top financial centre, outranking Hong Kong in the latest edition of the semi-annual Global Financial Centres Index.

Singapore’s growth has largely been credited to Lee’s policies of attracting foreign investment and strengthening