As Latin American telecom magnate Carlos Slim settles in to his new role as the world's second-richest man and challenges Bill Gates for the top spot, the Mexican government is taking aim at opening up the telecommunications industry that helped build Slim's vast fortune. Slim quietly overtook investor Warren Buffett and is «breathtakingly close» to wresting the top spot from Gates, Forbes magazine reported on its Web site Wednesday. In the two months since Forbes calculated its 2007 wealth rankings, the companies of the 67-year-old Slim rose US$4 billion (¤3 billion) in value to US$53.1 billion (¤39.6 billion), while Buffett's holdings slipped to US$52.4 billion (¤39 billion), as of March 29, according to AP. Forbes attributed part of Slim's «amazing run» to a 15 percent increase in share prices of Carso Global Telecom, part of a larger rally in Mexican stocks. Slim's America Movil cell phone company also soared on news of a possible acquisition of Telecom Italia. In the 2007 rankings released on March 8 _ but prepared almost a month earlier _ Forbes had listed Slim as the world's third-richest man and estimated Gates' fortune at US$56 billion (¤41.7 billion.) Slim said shortly afterward that he was not concerned about his ranking or taking over the top spot, but expressed differences with Buffett and Gates. «It's not about having who knows how many bonds, to spend them on whatever one wants or live it up all year,» said Slim, an engineer who wears modest suits and whose main indulgence appears to be expensive cigars. «I don't have apartments abroad. I don't have a house abroad.» If the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon has any say, however, Slim will have some competition in the sector he has monopolized for years. Calderon has underscored the need to open up the fixed-line and cellular telephone industries, dominated in the past by Slim's Telefonos de Mexico SA, or Telmex, and his America Movil company, respectively. «We need to transform our economy, to make the costs of production, based on electricity, gas and telephone and Internet prices, competitive with those worldwide,» Calderon said recently at an event sponsored by Slim's charity foundation. «To achieve that, we are talking with companies, among them telecommunications firms and, of course, Telmex, to look for a way to make the country's economy more efficient and competitive.» Mexico's telecommunications regulation commission will host a conference next week outlining challenges facing the sector. Telmex controls more than 90 percent of the nation's fixed-line phone services and made US$15.9 billion (¤12 million) in 2006. His America Movil SA controls about 70 percent of cell phone service in Mexico and made US$21.6 billion (¤16 billion.) Slim also has kept phone rates high in a country where the minimum wage is about 50 cents an hour. But it is not at all clear that such reforms would seriously affect Slim's wealth, now diversified in holdings throughout Latin America. «He's a sharp global entrepreneur who was able to use (Telmex) and expand it and make it more efficient and diversify from it,» said Kevin Gallagher, an international economic authority and professor of international relations at Boston University. Yet Gallagher also applauded Slim as a leader in the developing world. «There aren't too many countries south of the U.S. border where you can name people and companies that are global leaders,» he said. Slim said his vision of a businessman's role in the world is at odds with that of Buffett, who announced last year he would donate US$1.5 billion (¤1.1 billion) every year to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. «Our concept is more to accomplish and solve things, rather than giving _ that is, not going around like Santa Claus,» said Slim. «Poverty isn't solved with donations.» -- SPA
