Some 17 commercial banks in Ho Chi Minh City have disbursed over VND425 trillion ($17 billion) to enterprises, cooperatives, and household businesses in the southern city in the first eight months of this year, according to the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

The figure is equivalent to 83.4% of the registered capital package.

Nearly 147,000 customers benefited from the package to promote production and trade.

Banks have committed this year to providing preferential credit totaling over VND509.8 trillion ($20.4 billion) to enterprises, cooperatives, and household businesses in the city.

The commitment was part of the city’s banking-business connection initiative, which is designed to connect banks and financial institutions to support capital for startups and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) during the 2020-2025 period.

The city organized 29 conferences to connecting banks and businesses and discussing difficulties facing businesses to handle in a timely manner, according to Deputy Head of the HCM City branch of the SBV Nguyen Duc Lenh.