Over twenty-five years Morocco built an automotive and aeronautics export base largely from scratch, expanded renewables, and positioned itself as a bridge between Europe and Africa — while still struggling with low female labor-force participation, weak educational outcomes, and a growth rate that has not delivered the convergence the country hoped for. Karim El Aynaoui, former Director of Economics at Bank Al-Maghrib and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Moroccan Economy, joins the Growth Lab for a candid accounting: which industrial policies paid off, which did not and why, and what Morocco’s experience offers other middle-income economies attempting the same climb.