ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that the inauguration ceremony of the Izmit Bay Bridge, or Ozman Gazi in Turkish, took place on the evening of June 30, local time. The project was implemented in the Republic of Turkey by ITOCHU, in collaboration with IHI Infrastructure Systems Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture; Akira Inoue, President; hereinafter “IIS,” a company from the group led by IHI Corporation). The ceremony was magnificent, attended by His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Republic of Turkey, His Excellency Binali Yildrim, Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, other personnel on the Turkish side, His Excellency Hiroshi Oka, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Isao Ebara, Consul-General of Japan in Istanbul and members of the Turkish general public.

With the approximate total length of 2,700 meters, this suspension bridge is the fourth largest bridge in the world. It constitutes part of the highway project linking the largest city and the third largest city of the country, namely Istanbul and Izmir respectively. (See ITOCHU’s press release on September 9, 2011 )

Linking between the southern and northern sides of the Izmit Bay in the western part of Turkey, this bridge will decrease travel time and considerably improve distribution efficiency. The completed highway, with a total length of 420 kilometers, including the suspension bridge, will shorten the travel time by car from maximum 10 hours to only 3.5 hours. It is hoped that this will lead to regional and economic development.

ITOCHU will continue to actively implement infrastructure projects in Turkey and in other countries, thereby contributing to their development.