Dr. Hassan Rouhani said on Monday, March 1, at the ceremony of exploiting the national projects of the Ministry of Petroleum: "Today is our 53rd inauguration program. Of course, we hold the inauguration ceremony on Thursdays, but we had to add other days to launch our projects.”

"Oil and petrochemical industries are very important to us," he said. "Oil is tied to our history as a politico-economic industry. The budget burden has been borne by this industry in previous years, and in recent years, especially this year, we have weaned the economy off petrodollars almost entirely and the country was run with the least reliance on oil.”

"A lot of work has been done in the petrochemical sector since the beginning of this administration, and one of our great honors is the petrochemical industry," he said. "Many of the projects we are launching are upstream. We need to be able to design downstream projects as well. I ask the Minister of Petroleum to prepare a plan for the next administration’s actions in the petrochemical sector. Downstream projects can create a lot of employment for our people and enhance exports.”

Rouhani said that in the current calendar year, which began on March 21, “we have inaugurated 12 large petrochemical projects.”