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Government and Companies in the Transition Period of the Export-specialized Industry in the Shipbuilding Industry in the Early 1970s: Analysis of the Progress of the Construction Plan of Okpo Shipyard in Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2021, 78(3), pp.357-385
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.78.3.202108.357
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : July 21, 2021
  • Accepted : August 10, 2021
  • Published : August 31, 2021

Bae Suk Man 1

1한국과학기술원

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article specifically analyzed the process of starting the construction of the Okpo Shipyard of Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation. The construction of the Okpo Shipyard in the early 1970s was an opportunity for the Korean shipbuilding industry to transform into an export-specialized industry, and it has an important meaning along with the construction of Hyundai E&C Ulsan Shipyard. The attitude of the government at the time of August 1972, when Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation formalized the world's largest 1 million-ton Okpo Shipyard construction plan and requested the approval of the plan and related support, was negative. It was after the declaration of heavy and chemical industrialization in January 1973 that the government changed its attitude and decided to approve the plan and actively support it. The government took the position that it could not approve and provide support until the provider of the $100 million Okpo Shipyard Construction Loan was confirmed. However, approval was suddenly granted after the policy shift to heavy and chemical industrialization. At this point, it was still the same situation where the loan provider had not been confirmed. The progress of the Okpo Shipyard construction plan shows that the transformation of the Korean shipbuilding industry into export-specialized industrialization was a result of the survival and growth strategy of the company rather than the government's policy fostering. It was not the government policy that stimulated Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation, but the construction of the Hyundai Ulsan Shipyard. The role of government policy in the shipbuilding industry at the time of transition to an export-specialized industry in the early 1970s was not to “lead” the transition, but to “regulate” and “assist” and follow the strategic promotion of private companies.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.