LILONGWE, July 6 (Xinhua) -- America's former president Bill Clinton will visit Malawi next week as part of promoting poverty eradication efforts in the country, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika said Thursday.

    "President Clinton is coming to help us in our efforts to develop our country," said Mutharika in the capital Lilongwe during celebrations marking Malawi's 42 years of independence.

    Mutharika said the Bill Clinton Foundation would embark on a pilot project to uplift the standard of living in Malawi's rural areas, which are home to about 85 percent of the country's 12 million population.

    "The Bill Clinton Foundation will begin it's work in three rural areas before expanding to other areas," said Mutharika.

    Clinton's visit to Malawi is part of a rural development program that the former American president and the Scottish philanthropist, Sir Thom Hunter, plan to embark in Malawi and Rwanda.

    Chairperson of the Bill Clinton Foundation Ira Magaziner told local journalists in March this year that the Bill Clinton and the Thom Hunter Foundations had come together to help rural development in Africa beginning with the two countries.

    Last September, Clinton and Hunter launched a 100 million U.S. dollars Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) with an aim to construct a new model of poverty intervention in the world's poorest countries.

    The initiative would emphasize on enabling local populations in poor countries to define the right approach for their geopolitical circumstances whilst building the capacity to support self-sustainability over time. Enditem