Goh was set to meet Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, Prime Minister Thein Sein and other senior officials on the "goodwill" trip, a Myanmar official and a Singaporean statement said.
The visit comes just days after the Singaporean government said that expelling Myanmar from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was not the way to bring about reform in the army-ruled country.
"Mr Goh Chok Tong arrived in Yangon this afternoon to start his four-day goodwill visit," the Myanmar official, who did not want to be named, told AFP.
"He will meet with Senior General Than Shwe and other senior leadership in Naypyidaw (Myanmar's remote administrative capital) on Tuesday."
Singapore said that Goh was visiting Myanmar for the first time in 11 years at the invitation of Thein Sein, after the Myanmar premier visited the island city state in March.
It said Goh would "use the visit to update himself on developments in the country" but did not mention Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial on charges of breaching her house arrest that could leave her in jail for up to five years.
Goh is now a senior minister in the cabinet of his successor, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Goh succeeded Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew -- Lee Hsien Loong's father -- as prime minister in 1990 and stepped down in 2004.
He will visit Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay, and also officially open a hospital in Yangon completed with Singaporean assistance as part of a recovery plan following last year's devastating Cyclone Nargis, it said.
Myanmar has faced rare criticism from fellow members of ASEAN, including Singapore, in recent weeks since it put Aung San Suu Kyi on trial over a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside house.
Last month Singapore said it was "dismayed" by the charges against her and urged the junta to release her.
But the Singaporean government added that ASEAN should not expel the most troublesome of its 10 member nations, saying that the bloc will have greater influence on Myanmar by maintaining dialogue.
Myanmar's ruling generals have kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the past 19 years since refusing to recognise her party's landslide victory in elections in 1990.
**********Myanmar court set to rule on witnesses for Suu Kyi**************
Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest because an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home and stayed for two days. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been detained without trial for more than 13 of the past 19 years, including the last six.
The trial has drawn condemnation from the international community and Suu Kyi's local supporters, who worry that the ruling junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through elections planned for next year.
Two women members of Suu Kyi's party who are her sole companions in house arrest and the American, John Yettaw, are being tried with her on the same charge.
The defense has not contested the basic facts of the case but argues instead that the relevant law has been misapplied by the authorities. They also assert that any intrusion was the responsibility of the security forces guarding the house.
Closing arguments in her trial, which ran for nine days, have been postponed until Yangon Divisional Court rules on the witnesses not allowed by the District Court judges conducting her trial. They disqualified all but one defense witness, legal expert Kyi Win.
Those rejected by the lower court were all members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party: prominent journalist and former political prisoner Win Tin, the party's vice chairman Tin Oo, currently under house arrest, and lawyer Khin Moe Moe.
According to Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers, the court approved 23 prosecution witnesses, of whom 14 testified. He has described the rejection of three defense witnesses as "unfair and unjust."
If the Divisional Court rejects their appeal to have the witnesses heard, said Suu Kyi's lead attorney, Kyi Win, the defense team would appeal to the High Court, which could further delay the trial. The High Court is Myanmar's top court.
A radio station that serves a a propaganda organ for the junta, Padauk Myay, said Sunday that efforts by Suu Kyi's attorneys to reinstate the defense witnesses were just a pretext to allow Win Tin and Tin Oo to discuss party affairs with Suu Kyi.
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