Daewoo expanded into the construction sector, serving the new village movement, a development program for rural Korea. The company also took advantage of the growing Middle Eastern and African markets. Daewoo was given its GTC designation at this time. The government of South Korea provided major investment help to the corporation in the form of subsidized loans. South Korea's strict import controls angered competing countries, but the government knew that, without help, the chaebols will never endure the global recession caused by the oil crisis in 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 though Kim felt that Hyundai and Samsung had greater expertise in heavy engineering and was more suitable to shipbuilding than Daewoo. Kim did not want to assume responsibility for the largest dockyard in the world, at Okpo. He said numerous times that the Korean government was stifling his entrepreneurial instinct by forcing him to undertake actions based on duty rather than profit. In spite of his reluctance, Kim was able to turn Daewoo Shipbuilding and Heavy Machinery into a successful company manufacturing competitively priced oil rigs and ships on a tight production schedule. This took place in the 1980s when the economy in South Korea was experiencing a liberalization stage.
Throughout this period, the government relaxed its protectionist measures and encouraged the existence of medium- and small-sized businesses. Daewoo was forced to divest two of its crucial textile companies, and its shipbuilding industry faced stiffer competition from abroad. The goal 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 international dealings. However, the new economic conditions caused some chaebols to fail. One of Daewoo's competitors, the Kukje Group, went into liquidation during the year 1985. The shift of government favour to small private businesses was intended to spread the wealth that had before been concentrated within Pusan and Seoul, Korea's industrial centers.