World's Richest Man is from Mexico

World's Richest Man is from Mexico

The world's richest man told a group of university students in Lebanon, his ancestral home, on Wednesday that education and jobs are the best way to fight poverty.






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Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim is the first man from a developing nation to become the world's richest person. With a recovery in the value of his cell phone holdings pushing his estimated fortune to $53.5 billion, Slim jumped past Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett when Forbes magazine released its 2010 list of the world's wealthiest last week.

Slim, the son of a Lebanese immigrant, is currently on a one week visit to Lebanon, where he met officials and Christian religious leaders.

President Michel Suleiman granted him last week the Golden Medal of Honor for his achievements.

Slim, 70, described his trip to Lebanon, the first in 40 years, as "very emotional." Asked whether he plans to invest in debt-ridden Lebanon, Slim said he did not come "to look what business to do but to know the country."

During the weekend, he toured his ancestral southern Lebanese hometown of Jezzine where he visited the home that was once owned by his grandfather.

Slim said that his father, Julian, immigrated in the early 20th century from Lebanon looking for religious freedom from the Ottoman Empire. He described his father as his inspiration.

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