Zambian Vice-President Guy Scott said the country's aviation ban from the European Union (EU) will soon be lifted following significant strides made to resolve safety concerns, the Zambia Daily Mail reported on Friday.

In July 2009, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) imposed a ban on Zambia and stopped Zambian planes from flying into the Euro zone airspace due to poor safety standards. This followed an audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) between February and April 2009 which established that Zambia was not complying with international safety standards.

The Zambian vice-president said the government, in collaboration with the ICAO and technical assistance from cooperating partners has resolved most of the audit findings and safety concerns, adding that the government has since engaged the EU to remove it from the ban list.

After the ICAO audit of 2009 of Zambia's civil aviation, 98 findings, including a significant safety concerns, were recorded, he added.

"In order to set the pace and continue with the development of the aviation systems and infrastructure, Zambia has in place a program of reforming and upgrading the legal and institutional arrangements of the civil aviation safety oversight system," he was quoted as saying by the paper.

The vice-president added that apart from transforming the department of civil aviation into an autonomous civil authority, government has also embarked on the total review of the aviation legal framework to ensure that a strong and functional safety oversight system was in place to enable the aviation sub-sector to grow in a structured and harmonized manner.