Ten banks took part in a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City to lend to 44 businesses and two households in two districts at preferential interest rates.

Sacombank, Vietinbank, Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank, DongA Bank, ACB, HDBank, MHB, and ABBank signed credit contracts worth nearly 1.5 trillion VND (71.4 million USD) with targeted borrowers. Of which, Sacombank provided 60 billion VND (2.86 million USD) for five businesses and two households with interest rate from 8 percent per year.

Since the beginning of this year, Sacombank implemented 25 preferential packages worth 28.9 trillion VND (1.37 billion USD) and 105 million USD to support businesses and individuals following the policy of the Government and the State Bank of Vietnam.

Besides, to support businesses which join market stabilisation programmes in 2013 and Lunar New Year 2014, Sacombank will set aside 200 billion VND (9.5 million USD) with preferential interest rate of minimum 6 percent per year.

The ceremony was attended by officials from the State Bank's city branch, the Department of Industry and Trade, and the People's Committee of Binh Tan and Binh Chanh districts.

The programme has been implemented in other districts earlier.-VNA