SHANA -- Iran is expecting to launch three major petrochemical projects by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to March 20 2018, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.

Addressing the opening ceremony of IranPlast Exhibition here in Tehran on Sunday, Zangeneh said Kaveh, Phase III of Pardis and Bushehr petrochemical projects will come online by the end of the current calendar year.

Once operational, the projects will add 5.5 million tons to the country's annual petrochemical production capacity.

Iran launched several petrochemical projects last year which included Lorestan, Urmia, Mahabad, Karoon, Kurdistan, Morvarid, Kavian, Entekhab and Takht Jamshid projects.

Moreover, the country launched three polyethylene facilities during the year with 1 million ton/year of production capacity.

"We must exploit the presence of foreign investors in order to boost value of productions, access state-of-the-art technologies and generation of value-added, while refraining from production of low-value items," Zangeneh said.