Maku Free Zone
Maku is the road gateway to Turkey and Europe, built around the Bazargan crossing — the zone to choose when trucks, not ships, carry your goods.
Maku, Turkey border · established 2010 · ≈5,000 km²
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Maku Free Zone
Zone at a glance
- Established
- 2010
- Area
- ≈5,000 km²
- Border
- Bazargan crossing into Turkey
- Onward access
- Turkish road network to Europe
- Corporate tax
- 0% for 20 years
- Typical registration time
- 4–7 weeks
Maku Free Zone stretches across roughly 5,000 km² of West Azerbaijan province along the Turkish frontier, taking in the Bazargan crossing, Iran's busiest road border with Turkey.
The zone functions as an overland trade and assembly platform: goods move by truck into Turkey and onward into European markets, and Turkish inputs come the other way for assembly inside Iran.
What Maku actually gives you
- Twenty-year corporate income tax exemption
- Duty-free import of components and raw materials
- Direct trucking access to Turkey and onward European routes
- Very large land allocations at low lease rates
- 100% foreign ownership with free profit repatriation
- Bonded warehousing at the border crossing
Sectors & fit
Best for
Trading and assembly operations that ship by road to or from Turkey and Europe and need bonded storage close to the crossing.
Watch out
Queue times at Bazargan swing widely with seasonal volumes and customs policy. Model transit time as a distribution, not a fixed number, when quoting delivery.
What it costs to set up in Maku
Indicative ranges for a first-year foreign-owned entity. Actual figures depend on activity, space and headcount — we quote against your specific plan.
| Item | Indicative cost (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Zone registration & licence (first year) | 2,000 – 3,800 | Trading activities at the lower end |
| Annual licence renewal | 1,000 – 1,900 | Payable to the Maku Free Zone Organization |
| Land lease (per m², per year) | 0.5 – 2.5 | Large plots readily available |
| Bonded warehouse (per m², per year) | 20 – 50 | Proximity to the crossing drives the rate |
| Office space (small, per year) | 1,500 – 3,500 | Maku town or zone business centre |
| Legal, translation & notarisation | 1,500 – 3,000 | Consular legalisation included |
How to register a company in Maku
Trade-lane design
Set out the road lane, customs regime and bonded-storage need before choosing a site near the crossing.
1–2 weeks
Name clearance
Reserve the Farsi company name with the Maku registrar.
3–7 days
Licence application
File the activity licence with volumes, storage plan and the customs regime you intend to use.
2–5 weeks
Premises lease
Lease warehouse, yard or assembly space and register the address.
1–3 weeks
Company registration
Register the entity and collect the certificate, national ID and gazette entry.
1–2 weeks
Customs, tax and banking
Obtain the free-zone customs code, open the tax file and set up bank accounts.
2–4 weeks
Documents you will need
- Passport copies of every shareholder and director (notarised, translated into Farsi)
- Parent-company certificate of incorporation and articles of association, legalised by the Iranian consulate
- Board resolution approving the subsidiary or branch and appointing the local signatory
- Three proposed company names, in Farsi, for zone-authority name clearance
- Business plan covering activity, projected turnover, headcount and space requirement
- Proof of address for the leased office, warehouse or plot inside the zone
Maku Free Zone FAQ
What makes Maku Free Zone useful for European trade?
The Bazargan crossing puts Turkish highways and, through them, European road corridors within a single trucking leg — the shortest overland route from Iran to Europe.
Is bonded warehousing available in Maku?
Yes. Bonded storage close to the crossing lets goods wait under customs control instead of being cleared prematurely, which matters when border throughput is variable.
How large is Maku Free Zone?
Around 5,000 km², one of the largest free zones anywhere, which is why land allocations are generous and lease rates low.