Forum
ACITI Forum hosts regular webinars, seminars, workshops and an annual conference that bring together business, government, researchers and analysts. See the calendar below for upcoming events. Recordings and records of past events can also be found below.
Upcoming Events
Latitudes of Opportunity - Australia-Latin America FORUM 2026
Latitudes of Opportunity is a one-day Forum to shape the future of Australia-Latin America engagement at a time of profound geopolitical change.
The Forum will convene influential leaders from Australia and Latin America to unpack the emerging opportunities, confront shared challenges, set policy priorities and mobilise strategic actions to drive sustainable economic growth.
With the rise of the Global South and the energy transition imperative, Australia and Latin America share unique similarities that make our regions ripe for strong investment and collaboration. Both Australia and Latin America possess rich endowments in land, renewable energy inputs, agrifood, and minerals, as well as a shared First Nations heritage. These commonalities combined with our historically solid trade and investment base, growing innovation linkages, technology cooperation, and robust education exchange signal untapped potential and strategic opportunities that neither region can fully unlock alone.
Recognising the strategic importance of both regions to each other, this Forum will set the agenda for trade and investment partnerships and act as a catalyst for collaboration, innovation, and future growth.
DATE: 16 June 2026
TIME: 8AM to 6PM
LOCATION: Melbourne Town Hall
ORGANISERS: Australia-Latin America Business Council
More information available HERE.
Towards a greener BRI: Have China's greening efforts increased engagement among target states? A Murdoch University INDO-PACIFIC RESERACH CENTRE SEMINAR
PLEASE NOTE - The times are Western Australian local time. The seminar will run from 1.30pm to 2.30pm Eastern Australia Time.
Join the Seminar here:
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/44068783142236?p=Cc1bA5AWjMICjRGTqn
Meeting ID: 440 687 831 422 36
Presented by Dr Nathan Fioritti, Lecturer in Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University, and Dr Nuan Song, Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become central to extending the state’s structural power and establishing its role in global environmental governance. In 2017, China initiated a green reorientation of the BRI to address growing environmental criticisms and attract broader and deeper engagement from sceptical states. In particular, higher-income states, which had been less likely to engage with the BRI in its early years, face constraints when it comes to deepening economic ties with China. These include both geopolitical constraints and those stemming from incompatible environmental standards (Coenen et al. 2021), however, most scholarly work on the BRI still centres its geopolitical dimensions.
This seminar and paper examines whether the Green BRI strategy has reshaped the initiative's global engagement patterns, with a particular focus on whether it has encouraged engagement from states with higher environmental standards that were previously hesitant. The mixed methods study investigates the relationship between national environmental standards and BRI engagement, focusing on 80 states between 2013 and 2020.
The results of the quantitative analyses show that environmental standards became a stronger predictor of BRI engagement in the post-2017 period, with higher environmental standards associated with greater BRI engagement. These findings indicate that the Green BRI strategy has boosted participation among target states. The paper presents case studies of two states that increased BRI engagement after 2017 – Italy and Portugal – to illustrate how increased participation played out within these states and further demonstrate how China’s efforts to reorient the BRI towards greener development have reshaped global engagement patterns.
Trade and Trade Finance in the Digital Economy Conference
A conference exploring the cutting edge of the digitisation of trade and trade finance
Taiwan-Australia Low-Carbon Technology and Energy Security Supply Chain Resilience Roundtable
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Update from the WTO with Ambassador James Baxter
ACITI was pleased to speak with Australia's Ambassador to the WTO on what is going on in Geneva, Australia's approach, and the implications of current developments for the WTO.
Exploring the Campbell/Doshi vision for 'pooled' capabilities
ACITI was pleased to host a discussion on the Foreign Affairs article by Kurt Campbell and Rush Doshi proposing that 'likeminded' countries pool their technological, economic and military capabilities to counter China
Australia and the OECD with Brendan Pearson
ACITI spoke to Brendan Pearson, Australia's Ambassador to the OECD until February 2025, about what the OECD does, its contribution to policy making in Australia and globally and its role in enabling international economic cooperation.
Insights on the Indonesia-Australia Economic Relationship with Professor Poppy Winanti
ACITI had a fantastic discussion with Professor Poppy Winanti, a visiting fellow at the Indo-Pacific Research Centre, Murdoch University about the health of the Australia-Indonesia economic relationship and opportunities for increased collaboration in turbulent times.