ISTANBUL, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Five Somali companies signed an agreement here on Sunday to establish a joint company providing much-needed electricity and gas infrastructure to the under- developed country.

The agreement was signed at the sideline of the round table meeting after the closing of the United Nations' Somalia Conference in Istanbul.

Sharif Ahmed Said, director of the Somalia Business Council, said: "this project will give Somali people the peace dividend that has eluded them for so long."

The Trans-National Industrial Electricity and Gas Company will start with an investment of 1 billion U.S. dollars from the partners and other investors.

The five companies, which asked to remain unnamed for the moment, will provide the initial 300 million dollars down payment. The five companies are all local, not international.

The remaining funding will be provided by individual, not institutional, investors and by the manufacturers themselves, Abdullahi Hussein, spokesman for one of the companies told Xinhua.

The company aims to implement the Somalia Peace Dividend Project, a labor intensive electricity and gas infrastructure program to provide these services for the new industrialization of Somalia, and will be carried out in two phases.

The first phase, expected to start in the next 6 months, will train and use the skills of young people to provide electricity to exclusive economic zones and communities.

A written press release said the workers will be able to improve their livelihood as they receive training to construct, install and manage the infrastructure, which will help "reduce poverty, find alternatives to looting, piracy and unnecessary violence and stabilize the country and bring lasting security and prosperity to Somalis."

The second phase where factories will be established in specially designated economic zones for the local transformation or for fisheries, livestock, agriculture and mining industries, is expected to go live in 12-18 months, which Hussein admitted as " optimistic."

Overall, the project aims to provide training and employment opportunities for an initial 100,000 jobs throughout Somalia and Somaliland.

Hussein said security was not a concern for the project, adding that "tribal democracy means we leave control and management to the locals, they are part of the company."

Editor: Deng Shasha