World’s richest man against pledging his fortune to charity

MEXICO CITY - Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine, is against pledging half his fortune to charity as some of his peers have done.

Forty of the richest individuals and families in the US Wednesday pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of an initiative organised by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and legendary investor Warren Buffet.

Gates and Buffet are second and third on the list.

Slim said in San Juan, Puerto Rico that giving away half his money in this way would be “at least absurd”, the Mexican daily La Jornada reported Friday.

“Nobody can say with certainty that those resources will be correctly used by the people who have that money,” he argued.

Slim, 70, has long been a keen philanthropist to further health and technology issues within Mexican society.

“The money must be loaned for important social projects, and concrete and competent people have to be accountable for their implementation,” he said.

Slim, an engineer by training, was in Puerto Rico to attend an engineers’ conference.

Among the 40 individuals and families who signed on for what is probably the biggest private giveaway in history were tech billionaire Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; film-maker George Lucas; CNN founder Ted Turner;

oil entrepreneur T Boone Pickens; entertainment executive Barry Diller and eBay founders Jeff Skoll and Pierre Omidyar.