Tycoon Slim to invest us$250 million in Nicaragua telecom
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the world's third-richest man, will invest us$250 million in Nicaragua's telecommunications sector over the next three years, his local phone company Enitel said on Tuesday.

Slim met with President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua last week and said he could do business with the former 1980s Marxist guerrilla leader, who returned to power in January after winning elections last year.

Enitel, a subsidiary of Mexican cellphone giant America Movil said in a statement that following the visit Slim had decided to invest us$250 million in Nicaragua's telecoms sector between 2007 and 2009.

Enitel said it has invested more than us$300 million over the last three years in Nicaragua and this year planned us$75 million worth of investments in the areas of mobile, fixed line and data telecommunications, as well as in high-speed Internet.

Slim, who made a fortune in the 1990s when Mexico privatized its telephone company, told Ortega during his visit he would help improve education and health in Nicaragua, Latin America's second-poorest country.

Ortega has courted anti-US presidents like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as well as foreign businessmen since taking office on Jan. 10, leaving Nicaraguans confused about whether he has changed since leading a revolutionary government in the 1980s.