Daewoo moved into the construction industry, helping to create the new village movement, which was a part of the rural development program in Korea. The company was also able to take advantage of the emergent markets within the Middle East and in Africa. Daewoo received its GTC designation during this time. Major investment help was offered by the South Korean government to the company in the form of subsidized loans. The competing countries were angered by South Korea's strict import controls, but the government knew that, unaided, the chaebols will never endure the world recession caused by the oil crisis during the 1970s. Protectionist policies were necessary to ensure that the economy continued to grow.
Daewoo's move into shipbuilding was required by the government, even if Kim felt that both Samsung and Hyundai had greater skill in heavy engineering and was more suited to shipbuilding compared to Daewoo. Kim did not want to take responsibility for the largest dockyard within the world, at Okpo. He said many times that the government of Korea was stifling his entrepreneurial instinct by forcing him to undertake actions based on responsibility instead of revenue. In spite of his unwillingness, Kim was able to turn Daewoo Shipbuilding and Heavy Machinery into a profitable corporation manufacturing competitively priced ships and oil rigs on a tight production timetable. This happened during the 1980s when South Korea's economy was going through a liberalization stage.
Throughout this period, the government relaxed its protectionist measures and encouraged the existence of medium- and small-sized companies. Daewoo was forced to divest two of its crucial textile corporations, and its shipbuilding industry faced stiffer competition from overseas. The objective of the government was to shift to a free market economy by encouraging a more efficient allocation of resources. Such a policy was meant to make the chaebols more aggressive in their global dealings. Then again, the new economic climate caused some chaebols to fail. The Kukje Group, one of Daewoo's competitors, went into liquidation during the year 1985. The shift of government favour to small private companies was meant to spread the wealth that had before been concentrated within Korea's industrial centers, Pusan and Seoul.