The national employer association Ai Group has been invited to represent Australia as part of this year's expanded G7 meeting with the B7 group of business organisations.
Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, will take part in the meetings involving the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, online on 11 and 12 May.
The B7 is the business interlocutor to the G7 which includes the UK, USA, Canada, Japan, France, Italy, Germany and the European Union. The host of this year's meeting, the UK, invited Australia, South Korea and India as observers at both the Government and business level.
Innes Willox said: "I look forward to taking part in these discussions which will be around the global response to COVID-19 & other international risks, trade, the digital economy and climate & biodiversity.
"Australia has a positive story to tell of our experience in managing COVID-19. At the same time, it will be important to hear the experiences and plans of some of the world's biggest economies. They may have been hit harder than Australia but they will be emerging earlier than us to more normal business and travel and there will be lessons to learn from that.
"The trade session will be an opportunity to address the need to avoid protectionism on health which we have seen with COVID export bans. This is a global pandemic and we need to see more equity in vaccine distribution.
"Another priority for the meeting will be discussion of how we can safely re-start international travel and agree on mutual recognition of the protocols and documentation for vaccinated travellers," Mr Willox said.
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