Members of the board of directors of the petrochemical industry's employer union met with National Petrochemical Company's managing director as well as deputy oil minister Mr. Abdolhossein Bayat on December 20, 2009.

The meeting was held at the NPC's headquarters. In addition to the members of the union's board of directors, the NPC's deputy director for planning and production Bosaghzadeh, the deputy oil minister's bureau chief Jabbari, and the petrochemical industry's thought center director Mofakhami attended the meeting.

While expressing his satisfaction over the establishment of the union and evaluating its role as positive, Mr. Bayat stressed the necessity for boosting the cooperation between the government and the private sector to attain joint objectives.

He also expressed the hope that companies which are scheduled to be privatized would join the union in order to benefit from the union's potentials to solve their problems and offer useful solutions.

He said a proposal for the establishment of petrochemical industry development fund has been offered which could help remove economic problems and bottlenecks inIt was decided in the meeting that managing directors of the private-run companies to attend periodical sessions of the managing directors of the NPC subsidiaries with the aim of exchanging views and experiences between the private and the governmental units.

cooperation with downstream and parent industries. The fund will be set up using resources of the Forex Reserve Fund and the Central Bank and also members' capitals.

Mr. Ahmad Mohammadi-Bousari, the managing director of Arak Petrochemical Company as well as the chairman of the board of directors of the petrochemical industry's employer union elaborated on the establishment trend of the union and its objectives.

He touched on some problems facing private petrochemical companies and appreciated the managing director of National Petrochemical Company for his constructive points of view. He expressed the hope that the cooperation between different sections of the petrochemical industry, including the private sector and holding organizations would help remove the extant problems and flourish the petrochemical sector.

Other members of the union's board of directors, for their parts, referred to the existing problems and demands in the private sector and offered some solutions to help boost productivity and encourage investors to take part in petrochemical projects. The suggestions were welcomed by the NPC' managing director.