Izmir

Izmir operates as Turkey's export gateway—complementing Istanbul's import dominance with a second-largest container port handling approximately 1 million TEU annually through Alsancak. While Istanbul absorbs incoming goods, Izmir channels outbound trade: raisins, figs, apricots, textiles, machinery, and manufactured products flow through its facilities to serve 70,000 businessmen, 6,500 industrialists, and 100,000 tradesmen across the Aegean Region.

The city demonstrates deliberate industrial clustering. Nineteen industrial estates, three free zones, and nine universities create an ecosystem where education, production, and export infrastructure reinforce each other. The Aegean Free Zone (AFZ), established in 1990 as Turkey's first privately-operated export-processing zone, offers 100% corporate tax exemption for manufacturers—an incentive structure that shaped the zone's character as production-focused rather than merely warehousing. Automotive, machinery, and technology sectors anchor this manufacturing base.

Strategic uncertainty marked 2025 when talks to sell Alsancak port operating rights to the UAE's AD Ports Group collapsed after six months. Transportation Minister Uraloglu pivoted to Turkish entrepreneurs with potential foreign partners, while planning Candarli port integration 40 nautical miles north with nearby industrial infrastructure and shipyards. Turkey's Wealth Fund has targeted Izmir for strategic development, recognizing that the third-largest city's port capacity determines the nation's export competitiveness. The Alsancak port receives about 4,000 ships and handles 1.2 million TEU capacity annually—infrastructure that shapes Turkey's position in Mediterranean and Aegean trade networks.