Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) Taiwan’s lawmakers on Friday decided to invite Markéta Pekarová Adamová, speaker of the Czech parliament’s lower house, to deliver a speech in the Legislature when she visits Taiwan next month.
Caucus whips across party lines agreed to invite Adamová to address the Legislature on March 28, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said Friday.
You said he had put forward the idea during a cross-party negotiation meeting, and caucus whips across party lines readily agreed to extend the invitation to Adamová, as was done in 2020, when Czech Republic Senate President Miloš Vystrčil visited Taiwan and addressed the Legislature.
Adamová, president of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, is scheduled to visit Taiwan in March, as part of an Asian tour that will also include South Korea, she said in a tweet last week.
According to an online announcement by the Czech-Taiwanese Business Chamber (CTBC) earlier this month, Adamová will arrive in Taiwan on March 25, on board a charter flight arranged by the government of the Czech Republic.
She will carry out official engagements in Taipei with business representatives from the Czech Republic March 27-29, the CTBC said.
On Friday, lawmakers also decided that the new legislative session will open Feb. 17 with a plenary meeting, at which Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and his Cabinet will present their policies and answer questions by legislators.
Meanwhile, the caucus whips of all parties have agreed on a Feb. 21 date for a floor vote on two bills that seek to distribute surplus tax revenues to citizens in the form of cash payments to help counter inflation.
One of the bills was put forward by the Democratic Progressive Party government in January, proposing that Taiwanese citizens and eligible foreign nationals be given a one-off cash handout of NT$6,000 (US$199) drawn from the 2022 tax surplus.
In the second draft bill, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has proposed an amount of NT$10,000, saying that it should take into account the tax surplus not just from 2022 but also the previous years.
