Panama asks Dominican Republic to not list it as tax haven: EFE

Panama.- Panama on Monday asked the DominicanRepublic to remove it from the latter´s list of tax havens and to start consideringa "cooperative jurisdiction in tax matters," EFE reports.

Panama vice president and Foreign ministerIsabel Saint Malo made the request to Dominican counterpart Miguel Vargas, who’son an official visit in Panama City, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On the list compiled by Dominican Republic´s FinanceMinistry and which can be accessed at the Internal Taxes website figure tax-havencountries or low-tax jurisdictions such as Andorra, Bahamas, Gibraltar,Ireland, Liberia and Costa Rica, among others.

Vargas "acknowledged" Panama´s progressand modern financial system and "promised to lay the groundwork" to deletethe country from the list, says a statement from Panama´s Foreign Ministry.

The Panama Papers released in April spurredwidespread critique of the Central American country although legislation passedin recent years have modernized and made its finances more transparent.

At least 11.5 million documents were leakedfrom the database of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca which revealed that world celebritieshired its services to create offshores in various tax havens. The scandal promptedFrance to again place the country in its list of tax havens.

In that regard Panama passed a law inSeptember establishing various measures to respond to cases of foreigndiscriminatory restrictions.