The purpose of the research Facility and Asset Management in Croatia is that both of this management disciplines are relatively young, which have been studied and developed by academic institutions and businesses through best practices and expertise development. Facility management was first introduced in the US in the 1950s as a tool for enhancing business interaction and productivity. Today there are numerous international and national FM/AM associations and institutes, the most important among them are IFMA, BIFM, Global FM, Global Asset Management, ABRAMAN, SLURP USA, AMC, EFNMS and in Croatia it is Croatian Maintainers Association - HDO which covers both disciplines in management. The common goal of all associations is transfer of knowledge and expertise through various programmes of education, certification and gaining skills for a new profession facility and asset manager. Management of physical assets (their selection, maintenance, supervision and renewal) plays a key role in performance and profitability of any industry in which physical asset operations represent core activities. Good asset management practice can assist managers in making the right decision, optimisation of processes and minimisation of total costs during assets life cycle. In Croatia there is no education, comprehensive methodology and standard that would regulate this area, but parts of these activities are taken to cover under Croatian Association for Mainteners (HDO) activities. The future work of Croatian practitioners will be focused on education and harmonization of standards and participation in developing of the EU asset management strategy model. Generally, the businesses dealing with operations in which physical assets make up a large portion of balance sheet and income statement must treat facility and asset management as a strategic activity and not just maintenance cost. Academic and business communities recognised the importance of asset management as a fast developing, multidisciplinary field of science, making part of strategic management. Surveys conducted in Croatia indicated considerable discrepancy between envious technology level of production and the level of management and particularly asset management (survey included construction industry). Knowledge and competencies are crucial for sustainable economy which is a strategic orientation of Croatia's future development. Lack of adequate education has significant negative impact on the whole country and the companies, but also on our lives and environment including nature, ecology, health but also overall competitiveness.
