“Every successful investment requires skilled and trained cadres… and a stable, safe working environment…” With these words, Minister of Labor Hassan Raddad concluded his tour today, Sunday, in 10th of Ramadan City, Sharqia Governorate, with a visit to Utopia Pharmaceuticals, accompanied by Engineer Hazem El-Ashmouny, Governor of Sharqia. The official delegation was welcomed by Dr. El-Saeed Kamel, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Wael Abdel-Fattah, Factory Manager, and Dr. Noha Abdel-Shakour, Board Member and Director of Development and President of Utopia Akademia, alongside several company executives. This visit reflects Minister Hassan Raddad’s commitment to maintaining an active field presence across production sites and engaging directly with investors to identify their needs for a trained workforce, thereby supporting state efforts to boost production, deepen local manufacturing, encourage investment, and create decent job opportunities for youth.

During the visit, the Minister inspected the company’s capabilities, production, and expansion plans, listening to a presentation highlighting Utopia’s experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing, its technological capacities, and its ongoing efforts to increase local components, replace imports with domestic products, and strengthen the presence of Egyptian pharmaceuticals in foreign markets.

On the training and employment front, the Minister discussed with company leadership ways to activate and strengthen joint cooperation between the Ministry of Labor and Utopia Akademia. Discussions focused on leveraging the Ministry’s expertise in vocational training and youth qualification alongside the practical, specialized experience provided by Utopia Academy within the pharmaceutical sector. Both parties agreed to work towards signing a joint protocol of cooperation aimed at supporting the “Training for Employment” system, qualifying youth and graduates based on actual labor market requirements, and linking training programs with available job opportunities within the company and the broader pharmaceutical sector, fulfilling the Ministry of Labor’s target equation of real training ending in a real job opportunity. The Minister commended the company’s training initiatives, noting that Utopia Training Academy serves as an important model for bridging education and training with industrial needs, particularly given its successful collaborations with universities and the Pharmacists Syndicate, which trained over 500 recent graduates last year to prepare them for the labor market.

The Minister emphasized that the Ministry’s current efforts extend beyond administrative offices to factories and production sites across all governorates, as direct communication with investors and workers remains the fastest path to identifying challenges and offering practical solutions. He noted that the Ministry aims to build a true partnership with the private sector that encourages investment, expansion, and production while protecting workers and ensuring a safe, decent working environment. He reaffirmed that increasing production, creating jobs, and improving workplace environments are complementary goals, explaining that the new Labor Law opens broader horizons for regulating labor relations and balancing the interests of employers and workers while continuing to provide technical and training support.

During the visit, company leadership presented the main indicators of the project. Utopia Pharmaceuticals spans a total area of approximately 18,000 square meters, with Phase 1 occupying around 8,000 square meters, and an investment cost reaching EGP 1.35 billion. The factory houses 6 production lines with a current capacity of 120 million units annually, while its total portfolio reaches 185 products, including 73 registered and marketed products and 112 under registration. The local component in the company’s products reaches around 90%, and Utopia has successfully produced 19 products that were previously imported entirely from abroad, valued at EGP 840 million annually, reflecting its key role in supporting local manufacturing and import substitution. Furthermore, the company achieved sales exceeding EGP 2 billion last year, with exports reaching EGP 320 million, alongside a pharmaceutical cooperation initiative with Sudan that included hosting 4 Sudanese factories and producing medicines in Egypt to meet market needs during the crisis. The Minister concluded that these indicators demonstrate the critical role of industrial investment in national economic growth, stressing that every expanding factory creates jobs, every industrial expansion offers a new opportunity for Egyptian youth, and every successful investment requires a skilled, trained workforce within a stable and safe environment.