Corporate Australia must help lift flagging productivity, and hence wages, by investing in growing businesses, not share buybacks and special dividends, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says, as he seeks to limit the damage from the global trade war and markets turmoil.

In a speech to a Business Council of Australia breakfast on Monday morning, Mr Frydenberg will also close the door on revisiting company tax cuts for larger corporations, which they argue is needed for higher productivity, but will open it to the introduction of a Labor-style investment allowance.