US investment legend hails Sri Lankas post-war potential

Jim Rogers, who co-founded the legendary Quantum Fund with George Soros and now runs the Singapore-based Rogers Holdings told an Economic Forum in Singapore on Wednesday that China and Sri Lanka offer better investment opportunities than India.

“You’ve got the wind in your face doing business in India, you’ve got the wind in your back in China,” Rogers said according to Bloomberg. He sees ‘great, cheap’ opportunities in Sri Lanka because of ‘dramatic’ changes in the country after the end of the war.

While Rogers was positive on China and Sri Lanka, he expressed concerns on whether India would carry through with essential reforms even after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s victory and the record 17 percent jump in India’s benchmark Sensex index on May 17.

Rogers is noted internationally for his ability to divine the future. In 1970, he co-founded the Quantum Fund with Soros. In the next 10 years, the fund gained 4200 percent while the benchmark US Standard and Poor index advanced less than 50 percent.

In 2007, Rogers moved from the US to Singapore from where he manages his investments.

“If you were smart in 1807, you moved to London; if you were smart in 1907, you moved to New York City; and if you are smart in 2007, you move to Asia,” Rogers added.

Rogers is highly influential, in addition to being a guest Professor at the prestigious Columbia University Graduate School of Business, he appears regularly on US financial news channels such as CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

The Bloomberg report added:

“I’ve heard the same thing for the last 30 years,” Rogers said. He’s skeptical of Singh’s pledges. Still, India will be “the next great investment” if Singh sticks to his commitments, Rogers said.

This week’s gains drove the Sensex to a 42 percent advance for 2009 to date, in line with the Shanghai Composite Index’s 43 percent climb on optimism China’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus plan will bolster the economy.

Sri Lanka’s Colombo All-Share Index jumped to a seven-month high as the Central Bank raised its forecast for economic growth following the end of a 26-year civil war.

India’s ruling coalition said in its pre-election manifesto it will add between 12,000 and 15,000 megawatts of power generating capacity each year in its five-year term.

The targets are ambitious considering India added only 9,263 megawatts of new capacity during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, and less than half that in the same period a year later.

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said this week the economy may grow between four percent and five percent, compared with an April forecast of 2.5 percent.

The benchmark index has jumped 12 percent this week, taking its gains this year to 43 percent, the eighth-best performer globally, after the military said it killed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Myanmar also offers ‘enormous’ potential for investors, Rogers said, given the country’s location next to India and China and its natural resources.

He said he doesn’t currently have any investments in Myanmar.