Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the numerous developmental projects his government undertook since 2014 while addressing a business and community event in Singapore and launched three Indian mobile payment apps in the city state.
“We built nearly 10000 km of national highways in 2017,” said Modi while underlining the work that is being done by his government for the development of major ports, greenfield airports, high speed rail projects, freight corridors and railway stations.
He said that India has become the sixth largest producer of renewable energy and there has been a sharp rise in FDI in past three years.
“Indian startup sector is flourishing and is the third largest in the world,” he said, adding that there has been a special emphasis on MSME sector.
“A ‘new India’ is taking shape,” he said.
At the event, the PM hailed India’s “centuries-old” ties to Singapore identifying the city state as the point through which “the route to South East Asia also ran”.
“Singapore became the bridge and partner between India and ASEAN when India opened up to the world,” said the 67-year-old Indian PM.
“Political relations between India and Singapore are among the warmest and closest. Our defence relations are among the strongest,” he added.
Hailing the contribution of the Indian diaspora in Singapore, the PM said that the human link between India and Singapore lives in the Singaporean Indians.
“Here in Singapore, you represent the diversity of India,” the PM remarked.
At the event, Modi launched India’s BHIM, RuPay and SBI app. RuPay, a digital payments system, was linked up with Singapore’s 33-year old Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS). It will enable users of the Indian payments system to make payments at all of NETS acceptance points across Singapore and vice-versa.
A new app-based rupee remittance mode of the SBI’s Singapore branch was launched at the event.
Modi arrived here earlier in the day on the third and final leg of his five-day tour of southeast Asia after making a brief stopover in Malaysia on his way from Indonesia.
Before attending the event, PM Modi took a tour of the India-Singapore Enterprise and Innovation Exhibition at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The exhibition, organised jointly by Indian High Commission with Indian and Singaporean companies, showcased innovation in frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, fin-tech and innovation for social impact.
PM Modi is scheduled to hold a summit with PM Loong on Friday and deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to do so in the Track I annual inter-governmental security forum.