It has been some time in coming, but if the population is to take the indication given by the National Infrastructure Development Company limited (NIDCO), as being accurate, ie, that it is moving ahead with a number of infrastructural road projects as a means of kick-starting economic activity, then it looks as if the Government has finally come around to spawning growth and development.
As reported in this newspaper, the planned construction activities range through a highway leading to Toco, a port at Toco to facilitate the ferry to Tobago, a highway to the Western Peninsula and a series of other infrastructural projects have been outlined for construction.
It would seem that the projects are dependent on a portion of the US$1 billion the Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, expects to raise from his overseas "roadshow", offering T&T bonds on the US market.
It is reasonable to assume that in the circumstances of the Government wanting to partner with the contractors and the general investing community, it will use a portion of the funds raised to begin paying the reported $2.4 billion debt said to be owed to contractors.
Infrastructure Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has been quoted as saying that contractors have already begun to receive payment. President of the Contractors Association, Mikey Joseph, says his group has not got any official word from the contractors that payment has started.
But if payment, however small, has started, then the expectation must be that the payment will quicken and expand in time.
Such expansion is critical to any plans the Government may have for attracting the local construction and investing sectors to use their funds on the basis of a design and build model.
In this model, it is the contractors and financial investors who will make the initial investment to build with the Government, eventually repaying the sum invested, with interest, to those who put their capital in the pot.
It is a great way to conceive of getting activity in the economy moving because of the low levels of funds available in the Treasury.
In many ways it is an ideal option as it requires the investment and business community to make a statement of faith in Trinidad and Tobago.
It is an opportunity for the investors and members of the business community to put their money where their mouths are.
An injection of such faith can lift the economy from stagnation where large segments of the community are sitting and waiting for oil and gas prices to begin to rise again from the present low levels.
The last made point is vital for the entire country to understand.
Sure it is the responsibility of the Government, which got elected on the basis that it had a plan for economic development, to begin to put those plans into action. But it is also the responsibility of the private sector to become involved in sustainable development.
It has not been sufficient and it will never be for the private sector to simply sit on the sidelines and wait for Government to spend the revenue gained from gas and oil.
The sector has to earn its keep by investing in projects which have a developmental potential.
For the financial sector, the banks and finance houses cannot continue to declare hundreds of millions in profits from a dying revenue base in the energy sector.
High profits in banking and finance will only continue with investment in developmental projects.
The Government, any government, has no magic formula for economic growth and development in which the private sector is not essentially involved.
The country is waiting and dependent on economic activity.