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n Indonesia-New Zealand friendship group seeks to grow the centuries-old relationship beyond its current state of affairs, from pushing for cooperation on disaster risk reduction to managing future and emerging digital and technological trends.

With a shared history going back hundreds of years, the relationship between Indonesia and New Zealand has today grown from one of common words – telinga (ears) and mata (eyes) are found in both Indonesian and Maori vocabularies — into one that puts an emphasis on mitigating natural disasters.

However, there is still room for improvement, said Amris Hassan, outgoing chairman of the Indonesia-New Zealand Friendship Council.

“Indonesia and New Zealand sit on the [Pacific] Ring of Fire and, hence, both are prone to disasters like earthquakes, but [New Zealanders] managed to survive several accidents quite well because of the technology they possess,” Amris said in a briefing in Jakarta on Monday.

Amris handed the council chairmanship to his successor Indradi Soemardjan on Monday after eight years at the helm. The ceremony was witnessed by New Zealand Ambassador Tevor Matheson and former Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda, who was a patron of the council during Amris’ tenure.

Like Amris, Hassan said Indonesia was indebted to New Zealand for helping it develop its disaster risk reduction system.

“We owe it to [them] as our building code standard is from New Zealand. Most of the buildings in Jakarta, except the old ones like Sarinah [shopping center], have implemented the code,” he said in reference to the 1970s construction standard.

Amris’ departure from the friendship council marks an end for all the governing council members, whose positions are now being filled by young entrepreneurs like Indradi, founder of specialty coffee distributor PT Javanero Indonesia Arta.

As such, Indradi vowed that he and his new team on the council would push for bilateral cooperation in the agricultural sector.

“As we all know, New Zealand is known for its dairy products. On the other side, they need cattle feed products from us. This [presents an opportunity] for both countries to learn from each other in the agriculture [department],” he said, adding that coffee was another item on the priority list.

The friendship council also welcomes the addition of Tissa Aunilla, known best as a budding businesswoman and founder of Pipiltin Cocoa, a farm-to-table outfit for cocoa nibs.

Tissa said she would find a way for Indonesian chocolate products to expand into the New Zealand market.

On the flipside, New Zealand’s tech industry is seeking inroads into the Indonesian market, with an unnamed company seeking to visit Go-Jek, one of Indonesia’s rising “unicorns”.

“We will start our tenure by welcoming a New Zealand technology startup. It wants to learn from Indonesia’s success stories in startup development,” Indradi said.

New Zealand Ambassador Matheson was upbeat about the new council and said this year was the right moment to push bilateral cooperation with Indonesia forward.

The two countries celebrate 60 years of diplomatic ties in 2018, marked by a formal upgrade of relations into a “comprehensive partnership” when President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited his counterpart in Wellington earlier this year. The two governments agreed to increase the value of trade between them to US$4 billion by 2024, up from $1.14 billion in 2017.

“It is time for the council to achieve definition around the comprehensive partnership,” he said. “We will continue collaborations as we can do a lot more.”

Matheson, who urged the Pacific Ocean neighbors to stop taking each other for granted, said that Wellington was now focused on helping Indonesia further develop its eastern provinces.