Cengiz holding has made a $1.1-billion investment for an integrated fertilizer plant in southeastern Turkey's Mardin province. The investment will make more jobs in the city, which suffers from high unemployment rates. The facility will directly employ 1,000 people, which will in turn provide for 5,000 people and generate a positive economic ecosystem of 25,000 people.

According to a statement released by Cengiz Holding on Monday, Mardin located in the TRC3 region – known as the cradle of civilizations, yet home to the country's highest unemployment rate – is counting down the days for the biggest investment in its 4,000-year history.

The Eti Bakır (Copper) Metal Recovery and Integrated Fertilizer Plants to be established will begin production this year. The facility will consist of five main factories and 12 auxiliary units.

Plant General Manager Emre Kayışoğlu said 5,000 people are working in the construction phase of the factory, stressing that in a region where even the employment of one person is a positive step, they were able to provide job opportunities to 5,000 people during construction phase, with indirect employment of 25,000.

"We will employ 1,100 people directly when the plant begins operating," Kayışoğlu said. "In Mardin, which has a population of 800,000, approximately 200,000 of them are over 18 years old. Given that the rate of unemployment is around 25 percent, 50 percent appear to be unemployed. We plan to build an ecosystem of 25,000 people. Therefore, unemployment will decrease from 25 percent to 12 percent." Explaining that the integrated facility in Mardin is unique in the world, Kayışoğlu said Turkey has the only facility with integrated metal recovery.

"There are metal recovery facilities around the world, but ours is the only facility that is integrated with fertilizer," he added. Pointing to Turkey's current account deficit, Kayışoğlu noted that the factory will prevent the imports of $350 million worth of fertilizer and $270 million worth of metal.

He recalled that Turkey is 95 percent foreign dependent for the raw materials used in fertilizer production. Kayışoğlu also said Turkey imports half of its annual consumption of 5 million tons of fertilizer and pays $1.1 billion per year for imports.

"Once this factory is complete, it will provide 85 percent of the necessary raw material domestically. The other 15 percent is already natural gas. We will also produce the electricity for our factory in the facility," he continued. "It will be the only self-sufficient factory in the sector. Since we will not be foreign dependent on raw materials, the fertilizer we produce will directly prevent imports."