Asia Group Advisors Named “New Consultancy of The Year” by Public Affairs Asia at the 2016 Gold Standard Awards

Asia Group Advisors Named “New Consultancy of The Year” by Public Affairs Asia at the 2016 Gold Standard Awards

Jakarta,16 December 2016 -­‐ Asia Group Advisors (AGA) was awarded New Consultancy of the Year at Public Affairs Asia’s 2016 Gold Standard Awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The award recognizes corporate public relations, public affairs and communications excellence by a consultancy that has been operating in Asia Pacific for less than three years.

“We are very proud to be recognized for effectively and creatively engaging stakeholders on behalf of our clients and for delivering sustained impact,” said Adam Schwarz, the founder and CEO of AGA. “In a short time, AGA has managed to build its reputation as a leading strategic and investment advisory firm in the region.”

Commenting on the event, the Gold Standard Awards Chairwoman Penny Burtt said, “In 2016, the Awards received a near-­‐record number of entries, with 290 high-­‐quality submissions. The competition was tough in many of the categories, in particular stakeholder engagement and digital communication.”

AGA was cited for its breakthrough work on an environmental sustainability issue. Between 2014 and 2016, AGA worked with a Jakarta-­‐based think tank, Transformasi, and with support from multiple global philanthropies, to create and drive a multi-­ stakeholder campaign to strengthen sustainability requirements for lending to fishery and marine companies.

AGA achieved this objective by first identifying a key gap in the existing regulatory framework for fisheries financing. With buy-­‐in from senior leaders of Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, AGA 2 and Transformasi, through a series of multi-­‐stakeholder roundtables, developed a set of recommendations for new lending policies that
would incentivize more sustainable fishery industry practices. In February 2016, sustainable fisheries was included as an explicit target in Indonesia’s 2015-­2019 Financial Services Master Plan.