Export-Import Bank of Korea will inject some 600 million euros ($739 million) into a 3.1 billion euro landmark project in Turkey, which involves SK Engineering & Construction and Daelim Industry, officials said Sunday.

"Eximbank will provide the Canakkale bridge and highway project with 300 million euros in loan and 300 million euros in warranty,” the state-run bank said in a press release.

The two South Korean builders last year won the deal to build the world’s longest suspension bridge in Turkey’s Canakkale, as part of a four-way consortium with two other Turkish builders, Limak and Yapi Merkezi.

The 3.6-kilometer suspension bridge to connect Turkey and the European continent is slated to be completed by 2023, with a bridge span of 2,023 meters to mark the republic’s centenary.
 

Turkey’s national construction projects were conventionally financed by western players such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation.

In an effort to outpace front-runners, as well as Chinese and Japanese competitors, Eximbank actively participated in the bidding process, sending out a letter of interest to the given consortium in the initial stage, officials said.

“We expect this project to stimulate the export of base equipment, create new jobs, and increase dividend incomes,” an official said.

“It will especially act as momentum for our local steel industry which has recently reeled (under trade pressure from the United States).”