Limak Holding announced at a press conference in Istanbul on Tuesday that they have signed a $350 million financing agreement with YapiKredi and İs Bankası for the construction of the Alkumru Barajı hydroelectric dam in Siirt province, in the southeastern region of the country. 

The dam is designed to produce 1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy each year, with total investment in the dam expected to reach $466 million by the time of completion. The project will create one of the largest private sector hydroelectric dams in Turkey. "In such a crisis environment, it is an important development, it’s a big deal to receive a $350 million loan from two of the biggest banks in Turkey," said Limak Holding President Nihat Özdemir, who also revealed to the crowd that the agreement to finance the project, which has a planned completion date of December 2010, had actually been struck in October 2008 but was kept under wraps because it occurred at the peak of the crisis, when others were unable to benifit from bank loans. 

Özdemir said the dam will bring $50 million to the region’s economy during the three-year period of construction through goods and services supplied from the region "Construction continues at a very swift pace," Özdemir said, adding that the project has directly contributed to the employment to 2,000 people and indirectly to an additional 10,000 people. Ersin Özince, general manager of İş Bankası, told reporters that he viewed the completion of the project as a great example to the world of how investments could be made during the heat of the crisis, underlining the strategic importance of both the energy and construction sectors to Turkey: "Despite the crisis in the world and our country, I think that both Limak Holding’s energy investments and the banks which provided financial support for this investment were very important examples." 

"We are proud to provide credit for this project," said Yapı Kredi General Manager Faik Açıkalın. "We see it as a responsibility to contribute to projects in our country which aim to provide energy sustainability," he said, emphasizing the important role that the project will play with respect to guaranteeing energy supply and alleviating a number of social and economic concerns in the region.