South Korea has turned down a plea for government funds from the local arm of beleaguered US automaker General Motors, the company said Thursday. GM Daewoo Auto and amp; Technology Co. president Michael Grimaldi and other company executives made the request during a meeting Wednesday with the head of the country's commerce ministry, said GM Daewoo spokeswoman Lim Young-mi. “We asked for funding from the government (for) when the situation gets worse in the future,” Lim said. “The government said no for now.” Lim said GM Daewoo - South Korea's third-largest automaker - wants funding to help with development of new vehicle models but doesn't need government money for its daily operations. Oh Ji-won, a spokeswoman for the Ministry for Knowledge Economy, confirmed the meeting took place, saying that GM Daewoo “asked for favorable consideration on a par with” what other governments have been doing. She said that the ministry responded it would look at the “big picture, taking into account the entire auto industry.” GM Daewoo has suffered falling sales amid the global downturn and has curtailed production. The company's sales fell 50.4 percent in January to 45,954 vehicles. Sales fell 8 percent in 2008 to 881,959 vehicles. Unlisted GM Daewoo was created in 2002 after Detroit-based General Motors acquired Daewoo Motor Co., the automobile unit of the Daewoo Group. That conglomerate had collapsed as a result of the financial implosion that hit South Korea in 1997-98, part of the broader Asian economic crisis. GM Daewoo's request to the South Korean government is the latest sign of trouble for South Korea's auto industry.
