Introduction: In recent decades, neighborhood policy, as one of the most important foreign policy approaches, has played an effective role in developing economic, trade, and investment cooperation between neighboring countries. In this regard, free trade and industrial zones are considered to be the most important tools for realizing economic diplomacy and developing regional cooperation due to their economic incentives, facilitation of trade regulations, and logistical capacities. The Maku Free Trade and Industrial Zone also has significant capacities for developing cross-border trade, attracting investment, expanding exports, developing value chains, and strengthening economic cooperation between Iran and Turkiye due to its unique geographical location on the border of Iran and Turkiye, its location on the route of the North-South and East-West international corridors, access to the Turkish market, and its customs, transportation, and transit infrastructure. Therefore, this region can play an effective role in realizing the goals of the neighborhood policy, increasing bilateral economic interactions, and improving Iran's economic position at the regional level by utilizing its geoeconomic capacities.
Materials and Methods: The present study aims to investigate the economic capacities of the Maku Free Zone within the framework of developing the neighborhood policy between Iran and Turkiye. This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in nature. Information was collected through library studies, reviewing documents, official reports, published statistics, and domestic and foreign scientific sources. In the qualitative section, the required data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 managers and executives of the Maku Free Zone, economic experts, private sector activists, investors, and university faculty members who were selected through purposive sampling. The data obtained from the interviews were coded, classified, and analyzed using MAXQDA software after implementation.
Results and Discussion: The research findings show that the Maku Free Zone, due to its privileged geopolitical location, proximity to Turkiye, and location on the international corridors of North-South and East-West, has extensive capacities for the development of cross-border trade, transit of goods, development of logistics services, attraction of investment, expansion of export-oriented production activities, development of economic tourism, and strengthening of economic diplomacy. The results also showed that the development of the neighborhood policy between Iran and Turkiye can provide the basis for increasing the volume of trade exchanges, the formation of regional value chains, the development of industrial cooperation, technology transfer, enhancing the role of the Maku Free Zone in the network economy, and increasing the economic competitiveness of the region. On the other hand, challenges such as the weakness of some transportation and logistics infrastructures, legal and administrative restrictions, the instability of some economic policies, restrictions resulting from sanctions, lack of foreign investment, banking and financial problems, administrative bureaucracy and poor coordination between executive institutions are among the most important obstacles to the full realization of the economic capacities of the Maku Free Zone. Accordingly, upgrading physical and institutional infrastructures, improving the business environment, facilitating investment regulations, developing cross-border cooperation and utilizing the capacities of economic diplomacy are considered to be the most important requirements for realizing the goals of the neighborhood policy in this region.
Conclusion: Free trade-industrial zones are considered one of the most important tools for economic development, increasing exports, attracting investment, transferring technology and developing regional cooperation. On the other hand, the neighborhood policy, as one of the most important foreign policy strategies, can provide a suitable platform for expanding economic, trade and investment cooperation between neighboring countries. The results of this study show that the Maku Free Zone, relying on its privileged geographical location, geoeconomic capacities, and access to the Turkish market, has the potential to become one of the most important centers for the development of economic relations between Iran and Turkiye. Achieving this goal requires removing infrastructural and institutional barriers, improving the investment climate, developing bilateral cooperation, strengthening transportation and customs infrastructure, utilizing the capacity of international corridors, and formulating coordinated policies within the framework of the neighborhood policy. The results of this study can be used in formulating development plans for the Maku Free Zone, macroeconomic policies, planning economic relations between Iran and Turkiye, and decision-making by managers, planners, and investors.