WASHINGTON — International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Monday said the IMF will continue to push the Group of 20 major economies to focus on persistent debt issues burdening developing economies.

Georgieva, speaking at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, said the impact of US tariffs had been less dramatic than expected, but uncertainty remained high.

“Growth is slow, debt is high and the risks of financial downturn are quite permanent. They are there,” she said, adding that countries needed to be “much, much, much more focused on bringing debt levels down.”

Global public debt is expected to exceed 100% of GDP by 2029, Georgieva said last week.

Georgieva said the IMF was working intensively with the World Bank on helping countries that might not have unsustainable debt levels but faced severe liquidity problems, and would also try to keep debt issues on the radar at the G20.

“You will see us continue to engage with the G20,” she said. “We want this to be high on the attention span … Please, this is a priority.”

South Africa, current president of the G20, has made debt sustainability a key pillar of its year at the helm. The United States, which will take over the G20 presidency in December, has not signaled great interest in the issue thus far.

Georgieva said it was critical to recognize that countries needed to grow out of debt, which highlighted the need for job creation and ensuring access to technology.

Developing countries, already saddled with high debt levels, have faced additional burdens given US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The World Bank in April said half of some 150 developing countries are either unable to make debt service payments or at risk of getting there.

Total debt in emerging markets rose by $3.4 trillion in the second quarter to a record of more than $109 trillion, according to recent data from the Institute of International Finance. — Reuters

HANOI – Dozens of young Vietnamese women lined up for hours last month to catch a glimpse of “cool” troops marching through Hanoi in a huge military parade. But it was not their own soldiers they were looking out for. It was the Chinese contingent.

The scene reflects a shift in attitudes towards China – amid trade tensions with the United States – which has allowed Vietnamese leaders to push forward with sensitive projects, such as high-speed rail links and special economic zones close to China, that may significantly boost bilateral ties.

Only a few years ago, with many Vietnamese wary of a powerful neighbour with which they have fought multiple wars, such projects were seen as too controversial and caused violent protests.

But views are softening, posts on social media, online searches and language learning data show.

Nearly 75% of Vietnamese respondents prefer the United States to China as a partner, but the share favoring China is rising faster than anywhere else in Southeast Asia, bucking the regional trend, according to a poll conducted at the start of the year by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

TIKTOK ROLE

Social media appear to be playing a crucial role in the changing mood in Vietnam – and in particular TikTok, which is popular among the young and last year had 67 million users in Vietnam, the highest number after Facebook META.O, according to the government.

When users of the platform owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance search for the Vietnamese word for China, they get overwhelmingly positive results, some of them dating back to 2023.

Among popular videos suggested by TikTok are clips of Chinese soldiers performing synchronised dances and video showcasing Chinese cities, with many viewers expressing admiration for China’s rapid development.

TikTok users searching for the Vietnamese name of the South China Sea, a frequent flashpoint between the two Communist countries that have competing claims over the waters, often get clips on tropical storms or tensions between China and the Philippines, which also has claims on parts of the sea, according to tests conducted without user profiles to avoid algorithmic bias.

TikTok’s algorithm is confidential. China has orchestrated online campaigns using fake accounts on platforms including TikTok and Facebook to promote its geopolitical interests in the Philippines.

China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a question about possible online campaigns but said bilateral relations have deepened. Vietnam’s foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

CHINA’S ‘FLAWLESS’ SOLDIERS

In September, crowds gathered in Hanoi to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Vietnam’s declaration of independence from colonial rule.

Tens of thousands lined the streets, many of them to watch Chinese troops march alongside Vietnamese soldiers – an unprecedented sight in the capital of a country that was last invaded by China in the late 1970s and where major streets carry names of anti-Chinese heroes.

“It was worth the wait. So cool. I admire their discipline,” said Le Huyen My, a 22-year-old graduate who travelled from Ho Chi Minh City in the south and camped overnight to secure a spot to watch the Chinese contingent.

One video about the parade reached 3.3 million views on TikTok and drew around 1,400 comments, many praising the Chinese soldiers’ “flawless” marching.

Similar videos on other platforms also drew positive reactions, although Facebook users were more sceptical of both China and the U.S.

“Young Vietnamese online sound less strident about China than before, but that owes more to the state’s increasingly tightening control of nationalism than to fading resentment,” said Nguyen Khac Giang from ISEAS.

Online campaigns against China are still frequent in Vietnam and usually target companies for using Beijing-aligned maps of the South China Sea, but they tend to be short-lived.

That marks a change from 2018 when widespread anti-China protests forced the Vietnamese government to shelve a plan for special economic zones seen as favouring Chinese companies.

Now, Vietnamese state media report frequently on new plans for economic zones at the border with China, stirring no protest.

“Economic interests are prevailing over nationalism,” said Nguyen Hung, a scholar at RMIT University Vietnam, noting the Vietnamese government has promoted a pragmatic approach towards China, especially as trade tensions with Washington escalate.

Chinese companies are now among Vietnam’s top investors, Vietnamese data show, leaders meet frequently and interest in Chinese culture is growing.

China’s President Xi Jinping travelled to Vietnam twice in the past two years and Vietnam’s leader To Lam visited Beijing in his first overseas trip shortly after his appointment as Communist Party chief in 2024.

Online searches in Vietnam for China have surged, focusing on Chinese movies and language, according to Google Trends.

In the first quarter of 2025, Vietnam led global registrations for the HSK Chinese Proficiency Test, China’s official examination for non-native speakers, according to Chinese state media.

But as China has often experienced in centuries of ambivalent relations, Vietnamese pride runs deep.

“The Chinese troops look fascinating, but our soldiers are still the best,” said Nguyen Hue Van, a 21-year-old student who attended the September parade in Hanoi. — Reuters

SANTIAGO – The world is falling far behind a global goal to reverse deforestation by 2030, with losses being largely driven by agricultural expansion and forest fires, according to the 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment.

The report said the world permanently lost 8.1 million hectares (20 million acres) of forest, an area about the size of England, in 2024 alone, putting the planet 63% behind the goal set by over 140 countries in the 2021 Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use.

The Forest Declaration Assessment brings together research organizations, think tanks, non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups, and the report was coordinated by advisory company Climate Focus.

Fires were the leading cause of forest loss, accounting for 6.73 million of those hectares around the world, with the Amazon rainforest hit particularly hard, releasing nearly 800 million metric tons of CO2 from fires in 2024.

“Major fire years used to be outliers, but now they’re the norm. And these fires are largely human-made,” said Erin Matson, lead author of the Forest Declaration Assessment. “They’re linked to land clearing, to climate change-induced drought, and to limited law enforcement.”

Earlier reports also found Amazon fires led to unprecedented forest loss, with Brazil leading tropical forest loss and Bolivia’s forest loss surging by 200% in 2024.

This year’s global forest assessment also found that on average, 86% of annual global deforestation over the last decade was caused by permanent agriculture. It also listed gold and coal mining as growing sources of deforestation.

“Demand for commodities like soy, beef, timber, coal, and metals keeps rising, but the tragedy is we don’t actually need to destroy forests to meet that demand,” Matson said, adding over $400 billion in agricultural subsidies are helping drive deforestation.

“The incentives are completely backwards,” she said, noting international public finance for forest protection and restoration averaged just $5.9 billion a year. The report estimates that $117 billion to $299 billion in financing is needed to reach the 2030 goals.

With the COP30, the United Nations climate change conference, set to start in Brazil in November, Matson points to the country’s proposed Tropical Forest Forever Facility, which aims to raise $125 billion in funding for long-term forest finance as a way to help stem forest loss.

The fund, which would be financed by governments and private investors, could disperse $3.4 billion a year with 20% going to indigenous and local communities.

“Looking toward COP30 in Belem, a successful launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, TFFF, could start to channel long-term reliable finance to keeping forests standing,” Matson said. “So looking at the global picture of deforestation, it is dark, but we may be in the darkness before the dawn.” — Reuters