Yesterday, Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the first zinc smelting facility in Turkey, inaugurating the factory located in the city of Siirt (southeast) with a Qatari-Turkish partnership.

This factory comes at the forefront of the strategic steps taken by the Turkish government in recent years, in order to reduce its dependence on imports from abroad, which causes a deficit in the Turkish trade balance despite the fact that exports reached more than 200 billion dollars last year, in addition to the fact that the factory creates thousands Job opportunities in the city, which witnesses attacks from time to time by the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is classified as a terrorist organization.

local mining

In a speech during the opening ceremony, Erdogan said that this factory is the largest in Siirt and the surrounding region, noting that this factory was built with a Turkish-Qatari partnership, and will meet about half of Turkey's zinc needs, reducing dependence on the outside.

President Erdogan considered the zinc mining facility an important investment for Turkey, and said, "The facility will reduce Turkey's zinc imports by producing 90,000 tons in the first phase, and we aim to increase capacity over time to 250,000 tons, and raise the investment amount to $500 million."

He added, "This factory is evidence of our economy's program based on production, export and growth in our country. We will no longer talk about terrorism and terrorist attacks, but rather about production and employment."

Through the joint Turkish-Qatari investment - with an initial value of about $102 million - the only zinc alloy production facility in Turkey was built on a 145-acre land.

Erdogan during the inauguration of the country's first zinc smelting plant (Anatolia)

new economy

"Our goal is to completely eliminate Turkey's zinc imports by 2023," said Yasin Aktay, Honorary President of Lineer Metal AS, which is responsible for the zinc mining plant.

Aktay considered the factory as a model for a new economy that prioritizes investment, production and employment, rather than an interest-based economy.

He said that this facility was inaugurated with a Turkish-Qatari partnership, and we have put in place all the necessary plans to expand it.

He added to Al Jazeera Net, "The factory will produce about 40% of the zinc ingots that the country consumes during its first phase, which will help reduce the value of the trade balance deficit by about $400 million," while it will cover Turkey's full need of zinc during 2023, which amounts to about 250 thousand tons. with a total value of up to $1 billion.

He stated that 500 people will work in the factory in Siirt, and about 2500 in the mines in the cities of Hakkari and Şırnak, pointing out that the number of employment will rise to 7,500 people when other investments are completed.

He added, "We are achieving the largest economic industrial investment ever in Siirt and the region, which is one of the most important steps in combating terrorism, by providing real job opportunities in a region that witnessed many terrorist acts in the past."

In addition to mining zinc and completely localizing its production, the company will build two new plants for mining lead, silver and sulfuric acid, according to its honorary chief Aktay.

raw materials

For his part, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company that owns the factory, Fikret Biderman, stated that zinc and lead raw materials will be provided from Hakkari, Şırnak and Siirt, and production in this field will be 100% local and national.

"The return of mineral exploration activities in the southeast will be great for Turkey, especially in the long term. The mineral deposits discovered in the southeast excite me as much as the discovery of natural gas in the Black Sea," he said.

Erdogan: The facility will reduce Turkey's imports of zinc by producing 90,000 tons of it in the first phase (Anatolia)

Biderman stated that 95% of those who will work in the factory and in the mining will be residents of the region (Sirt, Şırnak and Hakkari), which will contribute to reducing unemployment to some extent in these cities.

Turkish-Qatari Partnership

Economic and trade relations between Turkey and Qatar have witnessed a great development in recent years, and increased in the wake of the blockade imposed on Doha in June 2017, and Turkey has become one of the most polarizing countries for Qatari capital in many sectors.

The Joint Higher Strategic Committee between Qatar and Turkey was formed in 2014, and Doha hosted its first session in December of the following year, and held 5 sessions since 2015 alternately between the two countries.

In 2017, Turkey opened a commercial office in Doha with the aim of encouraging the Qatari business world to invest in it, coinciding with the escalating development in relations between the two countries.

The Turkish Investment Support and Promotion Agency said that the number of Qatari companies operating in Turkey amounted to about 130 companies in various sectors.

Data from the Turkish Contractors Union indicate that Turkish companies completed 128 projects, worth $14.1 billion, in Qatar between 2000 and 2017.

According to the Federation of Chambers and Exchanges of the Republic of Turkey, the volume of trade exchange 15 years ago was in the range of 15 million dollars, and now it has increased by 60 times to reach 900 million dollars, while the Qatari capital invested in Turkey has increased from one million dollars to about 1.6 billion dollars.

The last huge Qatari investment in Turkey was the announcement by the Turkish Sovereign Wealth Fund to complete the process of transferring 10% of the shares of the Istanbul Stock Exchange to the Qatar Investment Authority.