May 21 (Bloomberg) -- China and Sri Lanka are better investment opportunities than India even after the Congress party’s biggest election victory in two decades, investor Jim Rogers said.
India’s benchmark Sensitive Index, or Sensex, jumped a record 17 percent on May 18, causing a trading halt, on speculation Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s victory will enable him to accelerate economic reforms. 
“I’ve heard the same thing for the last 30 years,” Rogers told an Economist Conferences forum in Singapore today, saying 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 today as the central bank raised its forecast for economic growth following the end of a 26-year civil war.
“You’ve got the wind in your face doing business in India, you’ve got the wind in your back in China,” Rogers said, adding that he sees “great, cheap” opportunities in Sri Lanka because of “dramatic” changes in the country after the end of the war.
Rogers is chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings and the author of “A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market.”
India’s gross domestic product growth may weaken to 6 percent in the year that started April 1, the slowest pace since 2003, the central bank said last month. China’s economy expanded 6.1 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace in almost a decade, though manufacturing expanded in March and April, with the Purchasing Managers’ Index rising to 53.5 last month.
Face, Back
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 today the economy may grow between 4 percent and 5 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.
Rogers said on May 12 he may bet on a slide in equities after nine weeks of gains, in a Bloomberg Television interview. The MSCI World Index has since lost 0.6 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chen Shiyin in Singapore at schen37@bloomberg.net
See "JIM ROGERS BLOG": http://jimrogers-investments.blogspot.com/2009/05/china-sri-lanka-and-india.html
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