SHANA -- Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh stressed the need for providing financial resources in the petrochemical industry.

Addressing a gathering of senior petrochemical executives in Tehran on Wednesday, the official said efforts must be made to set up a strong regulator for the industry, adding the value of petrochemicals produced in Iran were roughly at $20 billion, which could more than double.

The official said that the petrochemical industry played a huge role in generation of hard currency in the country, adding that the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) and the Ministry of Petroleum had played an important role in creating a balance in the foreign exchange market in Iran, recently.

Mr. Zangeneh said that the biggest role of the NPC was to provide the ground for funding development of private and state-run petrochemical products, and emphasized that in the downstream petrochemical industries, there was so must space for activities.