Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova speaks in the Czech Parliament in Prague on Jan. 12 last year.Photo: AFP

UNANIMOUS SUPPORT: The European parliamentarian is to address Taiwanese lawmakers next month while visiting the nation with Czech business representatives

Staff Writer, with CNA

Lawmakers on Friday invited Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova to deliver a speech in the legislature when she visits Taiwan next month.

Caucus whips across party lines agreed to invite Adamova to address the legislature on March 28, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游锡?) said.

You said he had put forward the idea during a cross-party negotiation meeting, and caucus whips across party lines agreed to extend the invitation to Adamova, as was done in 2020, when Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil visited Taiwan.

Adamova is scheduled to visit Taiwan in March, as part of an Asian tour that would also include South Korea, she wrote on Twitter last week.

According to an online announcement by the Czech-Taiwanese Business Chamber (CTBC) earlier this month, Adamova would arrive in Taiwan on March 25, via a charter flight arranged by the Czech government.

She would attend official engagements in Taipei with business representatives from the Czech Republic from March 27 to 29, the CTBC said.

Lawmakers also agreed that the new legislative session would open on Friday with a plenary meeting, at which Premier Chen Chien-jen (陈建仁) and his Cabinet would present their policies and answer questions by legislators.

Meanwhile, the caucus whips of all parties have agreed that a vote on two bills that seek to distribute surplus tax revenues in the form of cash payments would take place on Feb. 21.

One of the bills was put forward by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) last month, proposing that citizens and eligible foreign nationals would be given a one-off cash handout of NT$6,000 taken from last year's tax surplus.

In the second draft bill, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has proposed a handout of NT$10,000, saying that it should also take into account the tax surplus from previous years.

News source: TAIPEI TIMES