Steel plates are manufactured at SMC Tan Tao Factory in HCM City. HCM City has set a credit target of VND127.7 trillion (US$5.86 billion) this year for its bank-enterprise linkage programme. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai

Speaking at a meeting to review the programme over the last three years, To Duy Lam, director of the State Bank of Viet Nam's HCM City office, said around 80 meetings had been organised since July 2012 to bring banks and companies together.

The programme had surpassed its targets every year in the three years when banks agreed at these meetings to provide loans worth VND145.1 trillion ($6.66 billion) to 6,298 businesses, he said.

In the first half of this year alone they had provided credit worth VND77.6 trillion ($3.56 billion), he said.

Under the programme borrowers enjoyed preferential interest rates of 6-7 per cent for short-term loans and 9 per cent for medium- and long-term loans, he said.

Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City People's Committee, said the programme had significantly helped businesses, thus contributing to the city's economic growth.

The cheap loans helped enterprises reduce costs and invest in technologies to boost their competitiveness, she said.

Tran Tu, chairman and general director of Savi Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company, said like many others his company too had cash flow problems in 2010-12, but the programme helped it borrow from VietinBank and sustain growth.

The company now enjoyed an annual growth rate of 20 per cent as it exported to demanding markets like Japan, he said.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the SBV's HCM City office, said the truth was that many companies still had difficulty borrowing from banks.

In the second half of the year, the city would continue to study businesses' demand for credit and organise meetings in all the city's districts, he said.

The city as well as the SBV would also keep a close eye on the disbursement of the loans, he said. — VNS