The consensus came as the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre (IIFC), a government-owned company, presented a draft guideline on private sector's role in infrastructure development at a workshop here.

The government should now concentrate more on developing its negotiation and financial skills, leaving the technical ones to private operators, it suggested.

Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Siddiqui chaired the workshop, joined by senior officials of different state-run services and concerned bodies, economists, leaders of professional groups like engineers and representatives of several development partners.

"We are yet to have any guideline to involve the private sector in any major project and the situation prompted the government to formulate it, Dr Kamal Siddiqui told newsmen on the sidelines of the workshop.

Siddiqui who heads the expert-official committee to frame the draft with the IIFC assistance, said the document would be placed to the economic affairs committee after a review ahead of submitting it to the highest policy level for its final endorsement.

Presenting the draft guideline, IIFC Executive Director Nazrul Islam said despite earlier government policies allowing the line ministries to deregulate and privitise their infrastructure services in required cases, the ministries never felt encouraged to open their grips.

But, he said, the global scenario of increased competitiveness demands the government to categorically say which of the infrastructures should be kept under government control and which should go to private sector.

The draft said the planning commission supervision on private infrastructure projects should be waived and another entity with private sector dominance should regulate the services for better and quicker output.