In February 2007 the government unveiled its new buyback-contract formula, which significantly extended the length of the contracts to as long as 20 years. The buy-back scheme is a formula used by the Iranian government to attract foreign investment. Following the end of the Iran–Iraq War in 1988, Iran faced a major problem: it needed foreign investment if it did not want to lose its vital income from the oil and gas industry, yet its revolutionary ideology and Constitution forbid granting "concessions". A compromise solution was found in 1989 with the First Five-Year Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan. Under Note 29 of the said plan, the Iranian government is allowed to employ "buybacks" in its effort to meet the industrial and mineral needs in connection with exports, production and investment. Put in laymen terms, a buy-back transaction is a method of trade where plants, machinery, production equipment and technology is supplied (by a domestic or foreign private firm), in exchange for the goods that will be produced directly or indirectly by means of such facilities.