A customer purchases price-stabilised product at Vissan store in HCM City's Go Vap District. All goods sold under HCM City's price stabilisation programme will be labelled with a new logo by the end of December. - Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — All goods sold under HCM City's price stabilisation programme will be labelled with a new logo by the end of December, the city's Department of Industry and Trade has said.

Le Ngoc Dao, the department's deputy director, said the logo would help customers recognise price stabilised goods more easily.

The department will work with agencies and certain newspapers to raise public awareness about the logo, she added.

Sixty-eight companies and eight commercial banks are taking part in the price stabilisation programme this year, which runs from April to the end of March in 2015, she said.

Eight firms from An Giang and Dong Thap provinces have joined the programme for the first time.

The municipal government did not provide fund to support businesses joining the price stabilisation programme, but eight banks taking part in the programme are offering low interest rates on loans to participating companies, Dao said.

Banks have signed agreement to provide total loans of VND8.3 trillion (US$392.99 million) to businesses in the programme, a figure four times higher than last year, she said.

The annual interest rates are 5.5-6 per cent for short-term loans and 7-10 per cent for medium- and long-term loans.

Under the programme, four essential groups, including food and foodstuff, milk, medicine and school supplies, are offered at prices 5-10 per cent lower than market prices, Dao said.

Initiated in 2002, the programme has 8,479 shops selling price-stabilised goods in the city, including in outlying areas and in industrial parks. —VNS