The prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to build a High Speed Rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, which is expected to be completed by 2020.

With the new transport system, it is expected to take only 90 minutes to travel from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and vice-versa.

The announcement was made here at a press conference held after a four-eye meeting between both prime ministers and bilateral talks in Singapore.

The meeting was part of programmes held in conjunction with the Malaysia-Singapore Leaders' Retreat today.

Both leaders agreed that this was a strategic development to bilateral relations that will dramatically improve the connectivity between Malaysia and Singapore.

It will usher a new era of strong, growth, prosperity and opportunities for both countries and facilitate travel between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, enhance business linkages, bring the people of Malaysia and Singapore closer together and ultimately give both countries a greater stake in each other's prosperity and success.

The leaders tasked a joint ministerial committee to look into the details and design of the High Speed Rail Link.

Elaborating on the rail project, Najib said: "The single most important decision from this year's meeting is high speed rail which both of us agree should be implemented between KL and Singapore.

"It will change the way we do business and we look at each other and interact and will be seamless.

"Ninety minutes door-to-door, that, by itself one can visualise how the two cities will complement each other.

"We have done an initial study and the numbers are encouraging. This is a double business model.

"It will be based on private funding partnerships in the private sector and we will provide structured support and strong government participation."

Describing its as strategic project, Lee earlier said it would change how Singapore and Malaysia would look at each other.

"It will take some time to build. Target from Malaysia is 2020. We will cooperate, we will have to study the plans and the details as it will be done by the Malaysian side. Very significant in the long term," he added.

- Bernama