Early History
During the early part of the 1960s, the South Korean government initiated a new economic plan requiring the chaebols, or conglomerates, to concentrate on increasing production for export. A series of five year plans laid out the strategy for decreasing South Korea's trade deficit while strengthening local production. This was a strategy that had already been successfully utilized by Taiwan and Hong Kong, South Korea's Far East competitors. The corporation Daewoo was a key player in this effort to boost the significance of South Korea's exports.
The South Korean government sponsored cheap loans for chaebols producing goods for export. Daewoo benefited from the loans when it started trading in 1967. This was at the start of the second five-year plan. The corporation Daewoo capitalized on the huge workforce of the country, its primary asset. By concentrating on labour-intensive businesses, like textile and clothing, the business yielded high profits. The factory of the corporation within Pusan made 3.6 million shirts every month. What's more, the company manufactured basic manufacturing machinery, which were labour intensive as well. In this time, Daewoo helped to boost the level of exports of South Korea, which were growing nearly 40 percent per year.
Once the demand for labour pushed wages up, Korea's comparative advantage in labor-intensive production started to decline. Competition from both malasya and Thailand forced Korea to refocus its energies on other industries, such as shipbuilding, petrochemicals, electrical and mechanical engineering, and construction. This phase of the country's economic recovery lasted from 1973 to 1981. This happened at the same time as the US announced its intentions to completely withdraw its peacekeeping forces from the nation. The new emphasis in production was meant to further the expansion of Korea's exports while simultaneously manufacturing parts which had to be imported previously. Domestic components production helped to make possible a national defense industry and strengthen domestic businesses.