Zambia is among the top 4 best performing economies in Africa for doing business. This is according to United Statesbased Statesbased business and financial magazine Forbes in its ninth annual survey of the Best Countries for Business 2014 released in December 2014. Forbes rates 145 countries on 11 metrics, including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape,investor protection and stock market performance. Ranked 70th in the world, the countries ranked better than Zambia in Africa are Mauritius (34th), South Africa (43rd) and Botswana (69th). Namibia (72nd) completed the top 5. All the top 5 countries are in the SADC region.

ZAMBIA Sugar Plc has recorded the highest single production of sugar in Africa amounting to over 420,000 tonnes in the 2014-15 milling season ended December 31, 2014. Zambia Sugar acting managing director Rebecca Katowa said "This is the highest tonnage produced by a single sugar factory on the African continent in any given season”. The company produced a total of 424,024 tonnes of sugar from 393,000 tonnes processed during the 2013-14 season following a massive expansion project that has increased milling capacity.

African low-cost airline Fastjet PLC on Friday said its Zambian arm has received confirmation from the country's Civil Aviation Authority that hascompleted the first phase of its application for an air operating certificate. Fastjet said the completion of the first phase is a key step towards launching its service in Zambia. The next stage will allow the authorities to assess Fatjet Zambia's planned company structure, examine its aircraft and approve its operational plan.

ACTING President Dr. Guy Scott was recently on holiday in the Lower Zambezi National Park and took time to talk to journalists about Zambia's tourism potential. Said Dr. Scott: “Zambia's potential for tourism is far in excess of Zimbabwe, Botswana and even South Africa but we are just busy mining copper. We just have to keep our house in order. We need to get ourselves organised. We have better national parks so let us develop what we have”.

BANK of Zambia Governor Dr. Michael Gondwe has launched the Islamic Finance Guidelines for Zambia. Speaking at Radisson Blu Hotel on Tuesday, Dr. Gondwe encouraged all financial institutions that intend to launch Islamic finance products and services to approach the Bank of Zambia.

FINANCE Minister Hon. Alexander B. Chikwanda (ABC) says economic growth has remained strong in 2014 with preliminary real GDP growth at 6 percent, driven by agriculture, manufacturing, construction, energy, transport, communication, and the financial sector. However, mining is expected to contract on account of operational challenges at some mines. Over the medium term, real GDP growth is expected to escalate to an average of 7 percent principally as a result of increased agriculture production, electricity generation, construction and growth in transport and communication.