Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the world's third-richest man behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, will invest $250 million in Nicaragua's telecommunications sector over the next three years, his local phone company Enitel announced February 6th.

 

Slim is a Lebanese immigrant to Mexico whose father started a small shop. Despite no English fluency, Slim has amassed a fortune in the Spanish speaking telecommunications sector spanning the globe.

Slim met with President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in early February and said he could do business with the former 1980s Marxist guerrilla leader, who returned to power in January.

 

Enitel said in a statement that following the visit Slim had decided to invest $250 million in Nicaragua's telecom sector between 2007 and 2009. Enitel has invested more than $300 million over the last three years in Nicaragua. The planned $75 million investment for 2007 will be directed at the areas of mobile, fixed line and data telecommunications, as well as high-speed Internet systems