President Lungu says his administration is committed to a speedy repaying of Zambia’s debt.

Addressing parliament this afternoon when he officially opened the 3rd session of the 12th national assembly of Zambia under the theme “Working together to achieve vision 2030”, the Head of State said government remains committed to addressing this issue.

President Lungu says the contraction of debt was necessary in order for government to undertake developmental projects that are critical to wellbeing of the people.

And the president has assured Zambians that the country’s economy is on the right path as the nation continues to witness economic gains.

President Lungu says the growth of economy is being supported by stable power supply, continued performance in mining, agriculture, manufacturing and trade sectors.

He boasts that the kwacha has been resilient maintaining stability against major convertible currencies on the financial market.

He says inflation is expected to remain in single digit and expected to close in 2018 between target range of between 6 and 8 percent.

He adds that this is critical in maintaining investor confidence.

“In order to address high lending rates, government has continued to restructure non-performing loan portfolios through dismantling domestic arrears. I urge financial institutions in the country to supplement government efforts in lowering lending rates to enable private sector such as SMEs to have easy access to finance and contribute to national development,” President Lungu said.

Meanwhile, President Lungu says it is gratifying to note that economic growth has been recorded in copper production supported by favourable prices of copper on the international market.

He says copper production increased from 371, 705 metric tonnes in the first half of 2017 to 410, 919 metric tonnes in the same period this year.President Lungu says copper export earnings increased from US$2.8 billion from January to June in 2017 to US$3.5 billion in the same period this year.

He says it is government’s vision to see to it that value addition is promoted in copper production.