Taiwanese would be able to work in the Czech Republic without a work permit starting from next year, Czech news outlet Novinky.cz reported on Thursday last week.
Since July, the Czech government has granted people from nine non-EU countries — Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Israel and Singapore — the right to work in the country without any form of work permit, the report said.
The Czech Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs was expected to add Taiwan to the list in July, but it failed to do so at the time, as Taiwan had yet to be recognized by the Czech government as an independent jurisdiction, it said.
Photo: CNA
Therefore, amendments to the Czech Republic’s employment act were required to pass to acknowledge Taiwan’s status as an independent jurisdiction, the report said.
The ministry has submitted a bill to the Czech Parliament, which has been approved by lawmakers and would come into effect next month, it said.
The report cited the ministry as saying that an exemption of work permits for Taiwanese would reduce employers’ administrative burden and accelerate their entry to the Czech Republic’s workforce.
Although the bill is still under review and has yet to be approved by the Czech Cabinet, it is not expected to be challenged, as all political parties during the discussion said that Taiwan should be included in the list, the ministry was cited as saying.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,