Top news items in major Zambian media outlets

LUSAKA, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The following are news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Friday:

-- Zambian Vice-President Inonge Wina has launched the 2017/2018 tree-planting season with an assurance that the government will continue to devise mechanisms to curb the continued illegal exploitation of forests.

The Zambian vice-president said the government was concerned about the continued high rate of illegal harvesting and trade of valuable tree species. (Times of Zambia)

-- The World Bank has provided 60 million U.S. dollars as part of funding to Zambia's irrigation project aimed at boosting agricultural production.

According to the latest World Bank country report, 60 million dollars has been disbursed out of 115 million dollars committed by the bank under the irrigation development project which will benefit 14,000 smallholder farmers. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- The Zambian government says the economy is steady, sound and continues to grow as proved by its recent upgrade to stable from negative by an international rating agency, Moody's.

Minister of Finance Felix Mutati said the economy, which begun to gain traction in 2017, was in good shape, adding that government's focus this year would be to boost investment. (Daily Nation) Enditem