ISTANBUL - The first investment of a fund set up by the Oman Investment Authority (OIA) and Turkish army pension fund Oyak will be a new port in Iskenderun in southern Turkey.

Oyak and the OIA signed a deal on Thursday to set up a joint venture worth around $500 million, the OIA said.

"Increasing our country's ratio of exports is among our priorities," OYAK General Manager Suleyman Savas Erdem said in a statement on Friday.

The agreement was announced at a joint news conference with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said in Ankara.

"The first investment of OIA-OYAK fund will be South Container Port. The new port to be built in Iskenderun will meet the needs of the entire region," OIA Chief Investment Officer Ibrahim Al Eisri told Reuters.

(Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan; Writing by Burcu KarakasEditing by Jason Neely and David Goodman)