Daewoo expanded into the construction business, helping the new village movement, a development program for rural Korea. The company also capitalized on the burgeoning African and Middle Eastern markets. Daewoo was given its GTC designation at this time. The government of South Korea offered major investment help to the company in the form of subsidized loans. The strict import controls of South Korea angered competing nations, but the government knew that, unaided, the chaebols would never endure the global recession caused by the oil crisis during the 1970s. Protectionist policies were essential to make certain that the economy continued to grow.
Even though the government felt that both Hyundai and Samsung had the better skill in heavy engineering, Daewoo was forced into shipbuilding by the government. Okpo, the largest dockyard within the globe was not a responsibility which Kim was wanting. He stated numerous times that the government of Korea was stifling his entrepreneurial instinct by forcing him to carry out actions based on duty rather than revenue. Despite his unwillingness, Kim was able to turn Daewoo Shipbuilding and Heavy Machinery into a really profitable company manufacturing competitively priced oil rigs and ships on a tight production timetable. This took place in the 1980s when the economy in South Korea was going through a liberalization stage.
The government throughout this time was lessening its protectionist measures which helped to fuel the rise of small businesses and medium-sized companies. Daewoo had to divest two of its textile corporations at this time and the shipbuilding industry was starting to attract more foreign competition. The goal of the government was to shift to a free market economy by encouraging a more effective allocation of resources. Such a policy was intended to make the chaebols more aggressive in their global dealings. However, the new economic conditions caused some chaebols to fail. Amongst the competitors of Daewoo, the Kukje Group, went into bankruptcy in 1985. The shift of government favour to small private businesses was intended to spread the wealth that had before been concentrated within Korea's industrial centers, Pusan and Seoul.