In the mid-2000s Morocco adopted an Industrial Emergence Strategy. This ‘industrial policy’, which the article reviews in light of Morocco’s long history of industry, is explicitly aimed at diversifying the economy by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and improving external industrial competitiveness. It combines major infrastructure projects and industrial modernization programmes. Despite real success in certain subsectors, such as the automotive and aeronautics sectors, inadequate results of the first two Plans and Pacts for Emergence led the Moroccan State to adjust its approach by means of an Industrial Acceleration Plan (PAI 2014 – 2020). The ecosystem logic promoted by the PAI will prove successful if it is able to increase industrial relations (production, training, technology) between local micro-businesses/SMEs and large, foreign-owned, leading global value chains (GVCs). It will be less so if, in practice, it is reduced to a pro-active policy that fills the missing links of those GVCs present in Morocco, without supporting the development of national capacities.