ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to show that the achievement of a competitive level for real exchange rate is a necessary, although not sufficient condition for the catching-up of middle-income countries to developed countries. It is also required a change in the long-term expectations of real exchange rate by entrepreneurs which requires the elimination of the underlying causes of the tendency of overvaluation of real exchange rate, that encompass the Dutch Disease and capital account liberalization. Due to the existence of technological gap, industrial equilibrium exchange rate in middle-income countries may be higher enough to compensate domestic firms for their technological backwardness relative to firms of developed countries. This means that there is a space for Industrial and Science and Technology Policies in the New-Developmentalist theoretical framework.