Property tycoon Lee Kim Yew has distanced himself from the World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF), which recently courted controversy for inviting former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak as a keynote speaker.

In a statement, Lee said while he was among WCEF's founders, he was no longer with the organisation as he branched off to form the World Chinese Economic Summit in 2015, which has morphed into the Global Chinese Economic and Technology Summit this year...