Mohammad Ehtiati told Petroenergy Information Network that Irans petrochemical industry received about 2.3 billion dollars facilities from foreign banks last year. “We have taken suitable facilities from foreign banks in 2004 and negotiations for using those facilities will be carried out in the current Christian year,” he said. The official noted that Irans petrochemical products enjoy good status in the world in terms of price and umber of transactions. “Also, we have provided good grounds for exporting petrochemical products and marketing has been done for all petrochemical products, which will be produced during the Fourth Economic Development Plan and the Fifth Economic Development Plan,” he said. Ehtiati noted that High Economy Council and government are not planning to take petrochemicals out of the protection basket, “but in view of measures taken to make cement price buoyant, we hope to find a suitable pricing system for petrochemical products in cooperation with the government and the Council.” Managing director of Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company stated that his company has made many efforts for buoyancy of petrochemical products prices and even Ministry of Commerce, Organization for Protecting Producers and Consumers as well as Ministry of Industries have cooperated with those efforts. He said price of petrochemical products is constantly changing in the world, but in Iran prices are determined by High Economy Council, which has suffered more than 560 million dollars in losses to the National Petrochemical Company.