The Association is an interest association of business entities from the field of construction. Its members are building contractors, producers of building materials and products for building sites, designing, engineering and consulting organisations and a number of other production and business firms, which are involved in investment construction. Currently, the Association has 1300 members that represent more than three quarters of the building capacities of the Czech Republic. Co-operating or possibly collective members of the Association are professional unions, such as the Association for Road Construction, the Association for Railway Infrastructure, the Association of Concrete Building Block Manufacturers, the Association of Cement and Lime Producers of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, the Silicate Union, the Association of Building Material Traders, the Association of Plastic Window and Door Manufacturers and others. The mission of the Association is to defend the interests of the members and the industry with the objective of improving the conditions for business activities and the economic environment, expanding the construction market, improving legislation, simplifying construction preparation and particularly providing timely information about the trends of further development in investment so that the member firms can respond to these in their business plans in time. In order to push forward interests of the building industry and lobby correctly it is necessary to acquire a certain position. Today the Association is a legitimate partner of the government as well as the trade unions. It is a member of the Confederation of Employers and Entrepreneurs´ Associations of the CZ; it is a member of a tripartite, consisting also of representatives of the government and trade unions. The Association is a member of the European Construction Industry Federation with the seat in Brussels (FIEC), co-operates with partner entrepreneurial associations in Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Hungary, but also in Canada, Japan, Hong-Kong, Chile and many other countries. The Association members established a network of regional Construction Societies of ABE, which deal with problems shared by the members of the relevant regions. For the direct contact with the member firms the Association has set up the regional office in all regional cities of the CZ. The Association managers, who work here, together with members of the Board of Directors and Chairmen of the Association regional offices also ensure the feedback to keep the Association headquarters in Prague fully informed about matters. Work of the Association is based on the active participation of experts from member firms, in expert groups for dealing with specific issues in the area of prices, taxes, public contracts, housing development, quality and collective bargaining.