New Delhi/UNI: India and Singapore on Tuesday linked their real-time digital payments systems at a ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi terming it a new milestone in the bilateral relations.

"A new milestone in India-Singapore relations as we link real-time digital payments systems," the PM said in a tweet.

He said the friendship between both nations is very old, and has withstood the test of time.

"Our people-to-people relations have been its mainstay," he added.

He said the launch of the UPI-Pay Now Link today is a much-awaited gift to the people of both countries, and added that it has opened a new chapter in cross-border FinTech connectivity.

"From today onwards, people in India and Singapore will be able to transfer money from their mobile phones in the same way as they do within their own countries," he said.

The PM said the Digital India campaign has also made possible unprecedented reforms in governance and public service delivery, which was also seen during the Covid pandemic when the government was able to transfer money directly to the bank accounts of crores of people.

The PM said that India is today among the leading countries in the realm of real time digital transactions, and that UPI has become the most preferred payment mechanism in India.

Prime Minister Modi and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong witnessed the launch of cross-border connectivity between the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore Tuesday morning via video conferencing.

The launch was done by Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The linkage of these two payment systems would enable residents of both countries in faster and cost-efficient transfer of cross-border remittances.

It will also help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students, through instantaneous and low cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa, a statement said.