With determination, commitment, satisfaction and perseverance, I have the honor of presenting a new International Congress on “Silver Economy” in our City of Zamora. The scientific, cultural, prospective and health support successes of the congress held the previous year, also around this time, make us be constant, determined and assume this endeavor with enthusiasm and effort. Satisfaction of the "well done" and the "done well" is our internal reward and our social and collective satisfaction. However, although there were great contributions and successes in the positions of the congressmen in the area of aging and proposals to try to achieve success in our region, we do not ignore the wise phrase of Socrates, that “true wisdom lies in recognizing the own ignorance”. It is that "I only know that I know nothing" of philosophers and thinkers when they approach science. For this reason, we want to continue learning, knowing, experiencing new and successful realities. We also know that the motivation to find solutions makes us travel long paths and one of the greatest rewards in life is to find and ensure those solutions. Contributing to the health, well-being and happiness of others is, socially and vitally, a great investment. Life cannot be just complaining. We must find solutions and knock on the doors of those who can offer them to us. Where there is a difficulty or a problem there must be a solution and our commitment is to try to find it. To make Zamora a province specialized in services and industry for the elderly is to create a possibility for the future. Hence our constancy, our decision and our commitment.
The reality is that our region has many shortcomings, and older people, within it, have their limitations, but not so much that we cannot wish and strive to offer them a future with optimism. Hence our question: What to do?
We believe that a congress on Silver Economy, on longevity, helps us in this principle of activity and efficiency, of help and search for alternatives. Our Third Congress, as the announcing poster says, aims to: Open paths; Promote strategic alliances; Respond to the future that is at our doorstep; Open ourselves to the world; Open possibilities and understand that new technologies are knocking at our door. In short, knowing that "when one door closes, another opens". We said last year that it is not difficult to justify that our society has known and knows the greatest advances in science, in health, in development, and together with it, and depending on it, has been achieving "longevity". We are living longer, but it is not just about living longer, but about living the years with quality of life.
We know that in Zamora, for every 100 children under 16 there are 292 people over 64, a percentage that places us at the head of all of Spain. This trend towards an increasingly aging society poses serious problems, but also challenges and opportunities that we must know how to take advantage of. Life cannot be just complaining. We must find solutions. Where there is a difficulty or a problem there must be a solution, and our determination is to try to find it. To make Zamora a province specialized in services and industry for the Elderly is to create a possibility for the future. Hence our perseverance, our decision, determination and tenacity to keep Zamora at the forefront of that effort. Human existence, at the beginning, is like a small river that comes to life, widens more and leaves its traces, producing fertility, culture and experience. It is only fair that we contribute to better longevity.
Therefore, we continue with the third International Silver Economy Congress in which we will address the challenges and opportunities offered by active and healthy aging, from a horizontal perspective in which the efforts of all entrepreneurs in the sector are integrated, together with the contribution of the most notable and best academics. For this we have involved all the Universities of Zamora, professional associations, social agents, entrepreneurs, workers in the sector, etc. ... together with the contribution of researchers, universities and research centers, from different parts of Europe, who will make this Congress a unique occasion to analyze aging in all its aspects; from innovation in assistance and care, to the Silver Economy as the engine of economic activity in Zamora.
We are sure that the set of Presentations, Master Clases, Plenary Sessions, Work-groups, Debate Forums and Researchers Contributions, which will be able available for us in our City for two days, will leave important ideas to face successfully the social realities that our society demands in relation to age and longevity and, above all, the possibility of making Zamora a Silver territory with real development objectives for our province and its future.
With these opening words I wish the speakers and attendees a successful job, even though this year it will be almost entirely online. We regret the difficulties caused by the pandemic and difficulties in attending Congress, which would be our wish. Likewise, I wish a happy stay in Zamora to all the participants who come.
Francisco José Requejo President Hon.
Provincial Government of Zamora
