The modern world is organized around the global value chains (GVC). The GVC-oriented approach is an important tool for the national economy development strategies. It is well studied for the country level but not enough for the firm’s level. The article is devoted to the problem of the national economy integration into the GVC in the context of the national industrial complex. The aim of this paper is to generate the concept of the GVC-oriented approach as a theoretical basis for the successful development of the national industry. In the article some contradictions in the basic principles of the VC-theory were removed, theoretical provisions of the interaction between the GVC links and local national economic units are developed on the basis of the VC-theory, geoeconomic paradigm; the concepts of localization and co-development of the GVC and the localization of its links are complemented. Methodical aspects of the national industry diagnostics in terms of GVC are proposed. Testing was performed on the example of the national pharmaceutical complex of the Republic of Kazakhstan.