Park Won-seok: "Advancing Passport Service Center Opening in Suwon's Yeongdeung"

Park Won-seok, a candidate from the Justice Party representing Suwon District (photo), announced on the 24th that he will advance plans to establish a passport service center in Yeongdeung as his first campaign promise, dubbed "Zero Inconvenience for Residents, Small Promises from Park Won-seok for Yeongdeung."

According to Park's campaign, Suwon currently has two passport service centers located near Gyeonggi Province Office and World Cup Stadium; however, residents must wait over an hour at the passport service counter on days when applications surge, not only immediately after holidays but also on weekdays.

Park's team explained that the cause stems from Suwon's significantly higher demand for passport issuance compared to other local governments, and demand from neighboring municipalities also flows into Suwon due to transportation accessibility.

In fact, according to data on passport issuance status obtained by Park from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2015), Suwon issued 150,714 passports last year, showing a significant gap compared to Seongnam City (94,620) and Goyang City (82,036).

Furthermore, Suwon's passport issuance volume exceeded that of metropolitan autonomous cities and provinces including Ulsan Metropolitan City (6 passport service centers, 93,762), Gangwon Province (19 service centers, 100,112), North Chungcheong Province (12 service centers, 105,578), South Jeolla Province (22 service centers, 105,590), Gwangju Metropolitan City (6 service centers, 111,359), North Jeolla Province (14 service centers, 118,764), and South Chungcheong Province (16 service centers, 135,647).

Additionally, passport application requests flowing into Suwon from neighboring local governments was also a factor contributing to inconvenience in Suwon's passport services.

Park stated that upon checking with the passport service center located at World Cup Stadium, in addition to passport issuance applications from Suwon residents and employees of businesses based in Suwon such as Samsung Electronics, demand for passports from nearby areas including Yonggin's Heungdeok, Suji, and Giheung is also flowing into Suwon.

This is because residents in these areas have better accessibility to Suwon's passport service center compared to Yongin City Hall due to transportation conditions.

Park stated, "To resolve the inconvenience of local residents, we will initiate discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Gyeonggi Province on the expansion of passport service centers."