Great progress by Cayman Islands
From Mr. Gonzalo Jalles
Sir, Jeffrey Sachs’ article “Austerity exposes the global threat from tax havens” (April 29) fails to take cognisance of the current progressive moves being made in the Cayman Islands by both government and business.
Cayman Finance’s members fully endorse premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly who has stated that her government fully supports the UK’s pledge to carry out its G8 agenda to take tax evasion and promote transparency.
Cayman has stood at the forefront of jurisdictions that take a tough stance on tax evasion for many years, for example by implementing the EU saving tax directive, the Financial Action Task Force mutual evaluation and the peer review process of the OECD Global Forum on Tax Transparency, and by signing more that 30 tax information exchange agreements.
While we admire the superb work carried out by Prof Sachs and the staff and students at Columbia University’s Earth Institute we would respectfully submit that the data they have used in your article is somewhat dated and more influenced by Hollywood movies than hard fact.
I think you will find that come the G8 and EU summits, which will both examine tax evasion, the Cayman Islands will be at the forefront of change regarding transparency and openness.
Gonzalo Jalles,
Chief Executive,
Cayman Finance,
Grand Cayman,
Cayman Islands
