桃園市政府秘書處

On March 27, Taoyuan City Mayor San-Cheng Chang and Brno City Mayor Markéta Vaňková signed a memorandum of understanding between the two cities at Taoyuan Government City Hall. The MOU signing marked Taoyuan's first sister-city tie established since Mayor Chang took office. The mayor stated that it is rare to find cities worldwide that share as many similarities as Brno and Taoyuan. In addition to having strong industrial foundations and cultural diversity, the two cities are also home to an international airport, great universities, and research institutes. He hopes that the MOU signing will further deepen the bilateral relationship and open up new possibilities for collaboration in more areas for both cities.

Taoyuan and Brno have built a strong foundation of exchanges over the past few years. For example, a delegation from Taoyuan City's Department of Environmental Protection participated in an event under Brno's Sister Cities Day last year, sharing the Taoyuan Experience at a workshop focused on developing sustainable city strategies in the face of global climate change.


When Taoyuan City organized the “Meet Our Friendship Cities exhibition” in Taoyuan last year, Brno City also took part and presented its local specialties. During the global pandemic, Mayor Vaňková also had online dialogues with former Mayor Wen-Tsan Cheng to discuss and exchange pandemic control measures. The two cities have enjoyed frequent and vibrant exchanges.

In his speech, Mayor Chang thanked Mayor Vaňková for leading her delegation to Taoyuan on her first visit to Taiwan. He also looks forward to leading a city government delegation from Taoyuan to visit the Czech Republic and learn about Brno's development. Mayor Chang presented a wood carving of an electronic microscope crafted by a local craftsman in Taoyuan as a token of the sister-city tie. The gift not only showcased Brno's global presence as an electronic microscope manufacturing hub but also signified the possibilities of collaboration to be explored by the two cities in the future.

According to Brno City Mayor Markéta Vaňková, Brno and Taoyuan have already had many exchanges prior to the MOU signing. She expressed her special thanks to Taoyuan City for providing face masks and offering pandemic control information during the global pandemic. She looks forward to having more bilateral exchanges and collaborations in education, technology, environmental protection, and culture after the signing of the MOU. Having experienced the warmth extended to her by Taiwanese people on her first visit to Taiwan, Mayor Vaňková thanked the city government for its hospitality and expressed how impressed and touched she was by the backdrop design incorporating Brno characteristics at the signing ceremony.

Mayor Vaňková pointed out that there are many renowned universities in both Brno and Taoyuan, so she hopes to focus on exploring bilateral educational collaboration in the future, such as student exchange programs and joint research projects between the two cities. As Brno is an important economic hub in the Czech Republic and Taoyuan is a major manufacturing and business hub in Taiwan, she believes that the two cities could also engage in more industrial trade and investment collaboration to create new business opportunities.

Deputy Director-General Jared Lin of MOFA's Department of European Affairs witnessed the MOU signing ceremony between Taoyuan and Brno, highlighting how Taoyuan, as Taiwan's technology and industrial center, and Brno, as one of the Czech Republic's major cities and industrial hubs, can work together to advance their precision industry, smart machinery, semiconductor, and talent cultivation. He emphasized the importance of deepening exchanges across different fields and elevating the resilience and cooperation of democratic supply chains through a bottom-up approach. MOFA is pleased to see the enhanced city diplomacy efforts showcased by local governments' connections, collaboration, and engagement between Taiwan and Czech, strengthening the bilateral relationship in a positive and meaningful way.

In addition to the MOU, Deputy Director-General Jared Lin also shared that China Airlines, after years of efforts, will finally launch two non-stop flights from Taoyuan International Airport to Prague every week, starting from July 18 this year. This development will help create more opportunities for people-to-people communication between Taiwan and Czech, increasing bilateral tourism, business, and cultural exchanges.

Brno City Councilor Jiri Oliva expressed his gratitude towards the strong friendship that Czech and Taiwan share. As both cities have a strong commitment to creating better lives for their people, they should continue to work together and exchange new information, concepts, and solutions to help make people's lives better from the standpoint of city governance.


The signing ceremony was witnessed by Deputy Director-General Jared Lin of MOFA's Department of European Affairs and Brno City Councilor Jiri Oliva and attended by Director-General Hsu Shu-Chen of Taoyuan City Government's Secretariat, Director-General Chu-Dong Luo of Taoyuan's Department of Public Information, Director-General Chih-Hung Wang of Taoyuan's Department of Information Technology, Vice-Rector Iveta Simberova for Internationalization from Brno University of Technology, and Specialist Officer Jakub Janík of Brno’s Foreign Relations Department.