Daewoo the world. Throughout this period, Daewoo experienced great success at turning around faltering companies in Korea. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Daewoo Group also produced consumer electronics, computers, telecommunication products, construction equipment, buildings, and musical instruments (Daewoo Piano). Daewoo Group ran into deep financial trouble in 1998 due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, increasingly thin relationships with the Korean government under President Kim Dae Jung, and its own poor financial management. With the Korean government in deficit, access to cheap and nearly unlimited credit was severely restricted. In 1998, when the economic crisis forced most of the
Daewoo Motors parts for export, such as engines and gearboxes to GM Daewoo and to other companies. The factory was acquired by the Romanian government and sold to Ford in 2007 (the official agreement was signed on 21 March 2008). The production of Daewoo models was stopped in May 2008, and Daewoo Automobile Romania became Ford Romania. Daewoo also invested into Poland's Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych (FSO) in 1995, forming a joint venture called Daewoo-FSO, for the assembly of the Matiz city car, a successor of the Tico, that was very popular in the Eastern European market. Since January 2005, FSO began to