Top news items in major Zambia media outlets

The following are news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Saturday.

--A Zambian research body has partnered with a university in China to set up a traditional hospital in the southern African nation which will treat patients using herbal medicine.

The Tropical Disease Research Center has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine aimed at helping improving the health sector in Zambia through the provision of herbal medicine.

Modest Mulenga, the director of the Zambian research center said more than 50 Zambians are currently being trained in China to have skills on traditional medicine and that a plantation would soon be launched where different kinds of plants would be planted for herbal processing. (Times of Zambia)

--Zambia is set to tackle its housing shortage with the start of a project early next year to build 15,000 houses at an estimated cost of 1.04 billion U.S. dollars, a senior official said.

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela said the state-run National Housing Authority has signed a deal with Magcor International for the construction of the houses over a five year period.

Zambia, like many African countries, has a housing deficit affecting 1.5 million people, a third of whom are in capital cities. (Zambia Daily Mail)

--The Zambian government said it was working round the clock to reopen a commercial bank which was recently repossessed by the central bank after being declared insolvent.

Minister of Labor and Social Security Joyce Nonde Simukoko said the Ministry of Finance was currently holding meetings with concerned parties in order to find an amicable solution to the problem.

Intermarket Banking Corporation was recently repossessed by the central bank after it became insolvent sending thousands of depositors into panic. But the government has assured of a stable financial sector despite the problems facing one bank.(Daily Nation) Endit