Why Investor Jim Rogers Is Poking Around Uzbekistan

Why Investor Jim Rogers Is Poking Around Uzbekistan

Famed commodities investor Jim Rogers is starting to like Uzbekistan. In the background, a tourist's ... [+] view of the old city of Tashkent. There's an old Chinese proverb that goes like this: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." This should be on a plaque hanging above every long-term investor's desk. For sure, it is how famed investor Jim Rogers thinks. His claim to fame is calling the commodity supercycle when such a thing was unheard of, back in the early 2000s. He's been looking for the next commodity frontier play ever since. His latest find is an odd one: the landlocked and totally old school (but trying to become new school) former Soviet Republic, Uzbekistan. Unlike its neighbor, Kazakhstan, it does not quite have the media cache that comes thanks to a not-so-flattering movie about a fake Kazakh journalist named "Borat." Nor does it have the new, modern securities market being built in Astana, Kazakhstan with the help of Goldman Sachs GS ' capital in a city center that looks a lot like Disney's Epcot. Uzbekistan is, (and they would probably hate this), "the other 'Stan". It's finally