Australia welcomes reports that Hong Kong, Liechtenstein and Singapore have agreed to adopt OECD standards of transparency and effective exchange of information for tax purposes.
Australia looks forward to implementing effective exchange of information arrangements with each of those countries at the earliest opportunity.
"The Government is committed to ensuring a fairer tax system for all Australians, with Australia at the forefront of global action to enhance tax transparency and information exchange, having demonstrated strong support at the Finance Ministers' meeting hosted by France and Germany in October 2008," Mr Bowen said.
"Australia's position on tax havens has been evident in both its international exchanges and domestic policy settings.
"The Government's election commitment to reduce withholding tax rates on certain distributions from managed funds to non residents - delivered in the 2008 Budget – limited the benefits of these cuts to residents of only those countries with which Australia has effective exchange of information arrangements.
"Australia has ongoing strategies in place to address tax avoidance and evasion, including a comprehensive tax information exchange agreement negotiation program to establish effective exchange of information with low-tax jurisdictions, for both civil and criminal tax purposes.
"This program is complemented by a range of compliance strategies run by the Australian Taxation Office (including Project Wickenby), designed to establish the veracity of offshore transactions."