Zambia's exports would increase to three billion U.S. dollars this year from 2.1 billion dollars last year thanks to good performance of its mining sector and non- traditional exports, the newspaper The Sunday Mail quoted Zambian central bank as reporting on Sunday.

Zambia's copper output gradually increased to 440,000 tons last year due to more foreign investment, good management, advanced technology and copper price hikes at international market in recent years.

Denny Kalyalya, deputy governor of the Bank of Zambia, was quoted as saying, however, the mining sector still needed more investment to prop up.

As for the strong currency of the country, Kalyalya urged commercial banks to help protect the business community from adverse effects of the appreciation of kwacha, whose exchange rate against U.S. dollar changed to 3,500 to one dollar from 4,800 in February last year.

The exchange rate was becoming increasingly sensitive to the development of global commodity market, particularly to copper price, the deputy governor said.

Zambia is one of the world's biggest copper producer. Its peak annual output reached 700,000 tons in the middle 1970's and then dropped gradually to 300,000 tons in the 1990's. To reverse the situation, Zambia started privatization by selling most of the mines to foreign companies.

Source: Xinhua