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After the temporary closure of the two major airports in Bangkok late last year, new foreign investors, especially from the US, have lost confidence in doing business in Thailand.

Cynthia, who was appointed six months ago to the Bangkok office by the US Commercial Service, is in charge of promoting bilateral trade and investment.

She gave an interview after presiding over the grand opening of the True Value home improvement store at HomeWorks in Phuket on Saturday.

"Every country is affected by the global economic downturn, not only Thailand," she said.

That's why her office has helped business relations between the two countries.

The office was now starting a market research report for publishing in March and was going to film a video on Thailand's high-potential markets so that it could provide information to investors in the US.

"After that, the information will go on the website to let business people know about the potential market in Thailand," she said.

One example of a company capitalising on a potential business in the Kingdom is True Value, which is based in the US.

To the question of whether some kinds of risks such as political uncertainty will lower business sentiment towards Thailand, she said there would be changes in the laws of any country when having a new government. Most investors do not like uncertainties.

Though the economic-stimulus packages of Thailand and the US were of the same kind, she said they were to help lower-income earners.

"I don't know what is right," she said, replying "Hope so" when asked if the package would be workable.

The US has accumulated investments of about US$2 billion (Bt69.88 billion) in Thailand, but Griffen-Greene said she did not know how much of that was new investments.