Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, who led a Vietnamese delegation to the 11th round of the TPP negotiations in Melbourne, Australia from March 1-9, said Vietnam has held bilateral talks with the three countries about their participation in the agreement.

Khanh said with a high sense of responsibility, the 11th round achieved significant progress in dealing with traditional issues related to goods and services trading and investment and other issues like regulatory coherence and operation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

He is confident that the participants will be able to complete their negotiations by 2012.

The next round of TPP negotiations is scheduled to take place in the US in May 2012.

TPP negotiations started in Melbourne, Australia in 2010 with the aim of creating a Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement based on the initial one introduced by New Zealand, Brunei, Chile, and Singapore.

The nine countries involved in the agreement negotiations form a huge market of 472 million people, accounting for one-quarter of the world's GDP.