Bob Parker (AAP)

By 3 News online staff

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker has returned from an eight day overseas trip to South Korea, Israel and Beijing.

The mayor was invited to visit the countries, and attend a series of business meetings and international conferences, as he tries entice foreign companies to invest in the city's rebuild.

“The scale of the opportunity here is huge, but there is no shortage of cash in the world that wants to come here,” he says.

Mr Parker says the rebuild effort in Christchurch is progressing well.

“Part of this job is to make sure people are aware of the extraordinary progress that’s already been made here,” he says.

Mr Parker says there are substantial opportunities for the hospitality and education sectors in his city.

“This is about opening the door to people and saying ‘come and have a look’,” he says.

Mr Parker disagrees with the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce’s calls to sell assets to help the rebuild effort.

“We have a very solid treasury, we have a great income stream… so we’re not keen to sell those assets, we’d rather leverage them,” he says.