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The 22nd Iberian-American Olympics which are taking place in Portugal is an outstanding initiative due to the impulse it may provide for the young in the disclosure and promotion of the study of Mathematics.

International studies have highlighted that Mathematics is a fundamental subject for the structure of the thought processes, to develop reasoning, and to open the route to total fulfilment, whichever the profession the young shall come to choose. The quality in the teaching of Mathematics and the consequent capability of arousing the interest in its learning are an essential contribution to encourage success in scholarship and, as such, to guarantee the equality of opportunities in the access to further education and to combat precocious schools abandonment.

Initiatives such as these encourage the taste for learning in an area so often feared by young students. But competition, demanding an effort to conquer the different levels of selection, is equally a preparation for assessment and recognition, stimulates merit and rewards exertion, thus bringing about a healthy attitude capable of facing the difficulties encountered throughout life.

The cultural and territorial diversity which is presented here also has the potential to show the young the differing environments and conditions in which each one can do his best. That sharing and conviviality will also bear its fruits.

I greet the teams of all the countries that came to Portugal to take part in this edition of the Iberian-American Mathematics Olympics, and hope they will leave with a good recollection from the conviviality, the competition and the interest in learning more each day, as well as from the pleasure of seeing the beauties of the city of Coimbra and our country.

I congratulate the Organizing Committee and its President, Prof. Paula Oliveira, the Portuguese Mathematics Society and its President, Prof. Nuno Crato, and the Department of Mathematics of Coimbra University, for organizing this prestigious international competition and for their important pedagogical and civic activities in the teaching of mathematics.

I wish all participants an excellent competition and the best success for the future of each of the young Mathematics Olympians.

To you all, organizers, professors and students of all the countries present here, my best congratulations.

Aníbal Cavaco Silva