Speaking at IPF 2000, S. M. H. Adeli, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs, said that globalization was set to change the world and give a new definition and novel dimensions to the prevailing relations.
He said, "if we intend to be global and act accordingly, we have to think of partnership and complementary relationship.
In other words, we have to develop cooperation through partnership". He added, "We need to try to develop a kind of foreign economic relations that is based on the concept of partnership and sharing".
Despite two major downfalls in the oil prices in 1992-93 and 1998, the average GDP growth rate during the first and second plans was 7.3% and around 3.5% respectively.
Experiencing an incessant growth, "Petrochemical industry has been one of the leading sectors during the past ten years converting this industry from an importing sector to an exporting one", Adeli explained. He added that last year Iran's economy registered a strong growth of around 3.2% in real terms.

· S. M. H. Adeli, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs

He distinguished three elements of the third development plan, which has just started, as "important factors for our foreign economic cooperation". The elements were "first, 6% of average GDP growth per annum in real terms planned to be achieved through 7% of growth in annual investment.
Petrochemical industry will continue to be the center of attention and will be one of the leading sectors that will have further investment". "Economic reforms" and "a special attention to the foreign investment, joint ventures, using foreign financial resources in various forms and securing a sound and confident environment for foreign cooperation and partnership" were the other elements.