Panama is open for business — but money launderers need not apply.

That was the message of Juan Carlos Varela, president of Panama, speaking with the Post on Thursday night at a party he hosted at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, where he sipped on gourmet Panamanian coffee and feasted on his country’s rich cuisine.

Varela said he has been improving the regulatory climate since he assumed office three years ago.

Panama took a beating with the leaking in 2016 of 11.5 million legal documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, detailing potential money fraud. Varela said it “wasn’t fair” to characterize the documents as the Panama Papers, a term popularized by the media.

The controversial documents were held by the Panamanian law firm and purportedly revealed personal financial information of wealthy persons and public officials globally.