In the wake of the December tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia, Thailand needs more than $200 million worth of rebuilding on hotels alone, a member of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said yesterday.

Wanwemol Charukultharvatch, speaking at Duquesne University to a small group of business people, said that the need to rebuild created opportunities for U.S. suppliers of building products, construction equipment and architectural and engineering services.

Charukultharvatch, who was born in Thailand, is a commercial specialist with the embassy and was in Pittsburgh to encourage local business people to make use of the U.S. Commercial Service, a federal agency that helps companies to conduct business abroad.

Along with the need to rebuild hotels after the tsunami, she said the demand for office space, which was overbuilt in the go-go years leading up to the 1997 collapse of Asian markets, is expected to exceed the supply in 2006.

She also pointed out that members of Thailand's upper class were a viable market for some U.S. businesses, saying, "They buy anything and everything from every place in the world."

Charukultharvatch's presentation was sponsored by Duquesne University's Chrysler Corporation Small Development Center.