Abstract: Developing the “silver economy” is one of the important measures to actively response to the population aging. Exploring the consumption and production potential of the elderly in the field of social participation opens up new avenues for the development of the “silver economy”. From the perspective of the social participation, the “silver economy” is facing unprecedented opportunities for development. These opportunities include the employment of the elderly population adding new momentum to the development of the “silver economy”, older volunteers becoming an important supplementary force in the field of elderly care services, the development of elderly education promoting the growth of the “silver economy's” vitality, the improvement of the elderly population's quality driving the upgrading of consumption demand, and emerging technologies leading the transformation of the forms of elderly participation. However, challenges also accompany these opportunities. Therefore, to further promote the comprehensive participation of the elderly in social and economic development, we must fully implement a systemic approach, and properly handle the six important relationships, including economy and society, government and market, efficiency and fairness, vitality and order, family and individual, and subject and object., to promote the development and reform of the social participation of older adults, and achieve high-quality development of the silver economy.

Key words: silver economy, social participation of the older adults, sctive response to population aging, systematic approach