Early History
During the early part of the 1960s, the government of South Korea began a new economic strategy requiring the chaebols, or conglomerates, to focus on increasing production for export. A series of five year plans laid out the policy for decreasing the trade deficit of South Korea while strengthening local production. This was a strategy that had already been successfully utilized y both Hong Kong and Taiwan, South Korea's Far East competitors. Daewoo was a significant player in this effort to boost the significance of South Korea's exports.
To help the chaebols in their efforts for production of exports, the South Korean government sponsored cheap loans for chaebols. Daewoo was among these companies which benefited in the year 1967. This was at the start of the second five-year plan. Daewoo took advantage of the large workforce of the nation, its primary asset. By concentrating on labour-intensive industries, like clothing and textile, the company generated high profits. The corporation's factory within Pusan produced 3.6 million shirts each month. Additionally, the company made basic manufacturing machinery, that were labour intensive too. In this time, the company Daewoo helped to increase the level of exports of South Korea, that were growing almost 40 percent per year.
Korea's comparative advantage in labor-intensive production started to decline, once the demand for labour pushed the wages upwards. Thailand and Malaysia became market competitors to South Korea, that forced the nation to concentrate on the industries of shipbuilding, petrochemicals, mechanical and electrical engineering, and construction. This phase of the country's economic recovery lasted from the year 1973 to 1981. This happened at the same time as the US announced its plans to totally withdraw its peacekeeping forces from the nation. The new emphasis in manufacturing was intended to further the expansion of Korea's exports while at the same time producing components which had to be imported previously. Domestic components manufacturing helped to strengthen domestic businesses and make possible a national defense industry.