The Marmara Region produces about 50 per cent of Türkiye’s manufacturing industry and 64 per cent of its exports, and generates roughly one fifth of national income.
Provincial specialisation
- Istanbul — headquarters, finance, foreign-trade operations and chemicals; the leading exporting province with 4.1 billion dollars in January 2026.
- Kocaeli — automotive, chemicals and petrochemicals, with major port infrastructure.
- Bursa — automotive OEM and suppliers, textiles and machinery.
- Sakarya — the expansion zone of the automotive and appliance supply chain.
- Tekirdağ and Thrace — textiles, food and logistics; the gateway to the European land corridor.
- Balıkesir and Çanakkale — agri-food, mining and renewable energy.
Two faces of concentration
The advantage is a dense supplier network, short logistics distances and a deep skilled labour pool. The risk is that a contraction in a single sector or market hits the region disproportionately.
Three structural headings
- Logistics — port and rail connections remain the bottleneck.
- Water and energy — predictability of supply is now a production security issue, not only an environmental one.
- Skilled labour and housing — employers compete on commuting time as much as on salary.
Istanbul: business continuity
Given the earthquake risk, a company without a business continuity plan is an incomplete company in Istanbul. Three minimum steps: off-site data backup, a pre-identified alternative supplier, and a written evacuation and assembly plan for staff.
Compiled from public export and industry statistics; the assessment is MAİD’s own.