Daewoo expanded into the construction industry, helping the new village movement, a development program for rural Korea. The company also took advantage of the burgeoning African and Middle Eastern markets. Daewoo was given its GTC designation at this time. Major investment support was provided by the government of South Korea to the corporation in the form of subsidized loans. The competing countries were angered by the strict import controls of South Korea, but the government knew that, independently, the chaebols will never endure the world recession caused by the 1970's oil crisis. Protectionist policies were required to ensure that the economy continued to grow.
Daewoo's move into shipbuilding was required by the government, even if Kim felt that both Hyundai and Samsung had greater knowledge in heavy engineering and was more suited to shipbuilding than Daewoo. Kim did not want to take responsibility for the largest dockyard within the world, at Okpo. He stated many times that the government of Korea was stifling his entrepreneurial instinct by forcing him to undertake actions based on duty rather than revenue. Despite his unwillingness, Kim was able to turn Daewoo Shipbuilding and Heavy Machinery into a profitable corporation manufacturing competitively priced oil rigs and ships on a tight production timetable. This took place in the 1980s when the economy within South Korea was experiencing a liberalization stage.
The government in this time was lessening its protectionist measures that helped to fuel the rise of small businesses and medium-sized businesses. Daewoo had to rid two of its textile companies at this time and the shipbuilding business was beginning to attract more foreign competition. The government's goal was to shift to a free market economy by encouraging a more efficient allocation of resources. Such a policy was intended to make the chaebols more aggressive in their global dealings. Nevertheless, the new economic conditions caused some chaebols to fail. The Kukje Group, among the competitors of Daewoo, went into liquidation in the year 1985. The shift of government favour to small private businesses was intended to spread the wealth which had previously been concentrated in Korea's industrial centers, Pusan and Seoul.