The reform process, or lack thereof, and the perceived failures of monetary policy took center stage at the Egyptian Capital Market Association’s 20th anniversary which took place yesterday. Monetary policy had become a real impediment to economic growth as they lacked clarity, said former Finance Minister Ahmed Galal. Political reform and the democratic process were the key to economic reform, he added. What Egypt needs in the coming period is a shot in the arm to its institutions, said Galal. Former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, who fended off questions about Tiran and Sanafir by saying the border demarcation talks did not take place during his tenure between 1991 and 2001, agreed with Galal. He blamed the failure in implementing the one-stop shop policy on stalled administrative reforms. Former head of the Egyptian Capital Market Authority Hany Sarie El Din pointed to legislative failures as the reason behind investments leaving the country. Mounir Abdel Nour, the former Industry and Trade Minister, blamed government bureaucrats and their conflicting interest with policy makers on the current state of affairs. He was joined by ECMA chairman Mohamed Taymour in his criticism of the all-powerful bureaucracy. In one of the more unusual developments at the conference, Public Enterprise Minister Ashraf El Sharkawy dismissed questions about the IPO of state-owned companies, saying that he never explicitly said IPOs would happen, so apparently we all imagined the whole thing. “All I ever talked about was restructuring them,” he added. This came as Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid had spoken about the IPOs in her strategy brief at the conference.