Phosphates

Told parliament the loan belongs to a programme to restore CPG's production rhythm through new equipment and better water treatment, and that the company's finances were too weak for it to look for foreign money on its own. He put repayment at ten years with three years' grace, called the terms acceptable given the situation, and said CPG had not borrowed since 2014. He insists the Islamic trade financing is a different thing: it buys raw materials for GCT, not new plant. Better governance, he says, is imperative across all public enterprises. The companies stay in public hands, he says, and structural reform may go as far as merging them.

”les financements faisant l'objet des projets de loi n° 50 et n° 51 de l'année 2026, ne sont pas destinés à la modernisation des moyens de production du Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) mais à l'importation de matières premières nécessaires à la production d'engrais”the financings covered by bills 50 and 51 of 2026 are not intended for the modernisation of the Tunisian Chemical Group's means of production but for the import of raw materials needed to produce fertiliser

CPG and GCT gave the finance committee of the National Council of Regions and Districts an integrated strategy costing about 2.7 billion dinars, aiming at 5 million tonnes of commercial phosphate in 2028 and 9.4 million in 2035. The presentation named the shortage of water for washing the ore and transport problems, including rail, as the main obstacles, and Bouzouada said the parties involved are working with the prime minister's office to remove them. On 21 July 2026 he told parliament's finance committee that CPG is in a structural crisis of falling production, accumulated losses, ageing equipment and social disruption, and that the recovery plan needs five to seven years.

Backs the decision to put CPG and GCT under one chief executive, calling it among the government's best moves, but says it settles nothing on its own. The sector's problems are deep and accumulated, he says, and getting out of them takes money together with real change in administration, finances and governance, not a new appointment at the top.

”الدمج الإداري بين الشركتين يعد من أفضل القرارات التي اتخذتها الحكومة”the administrative merger of the two companies is among the best decisions the government has taken

Says the Eid and productivity bonuses behind the May 2026 stoppages were barely half what workers had been paid in previous years, and were handed out unilaterally, with no negotiation with the unions beforehand. She warns that the social climate in the mining basin is getting worse, and asks who is behind what she calls a drive to stoke tension in Gafsa.

Treats water as the binding constraint on any production target. Speaking on Mosaïque FM in March 2025 about the government's 2025 to 2030 phosphate programme, he said the Gafsa mining basin has two wastewater treatment plants with a combined 11,000 cubic metres a day, while CPG needs 50,000 a day to wash the ore. He called the target the government had announced at the time, 14 million tonnes within five years, unrealistic given the age of CPG's and GCT's equipment. He proposed supplying the washing plants from the Skhira seawater desalination plant and moving the ore by pipeline, and said the state must stop using CPG to meet the region's demand for jobs and wages.