<![CDATA[Indonesia’s blue economy roadmap projected the maritime sector to contribute 15% to national GDP by 2045, yet its realisation rested on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that constitute more than 90% of marine and fisheries actors. In Manado, a strategic coastal city facing the Pacific trade route, MSMEs encountered a persistent regulatory mismatch: business law remains terrestrial-oriented and fails to accommodate the spatial, traceability, and digital-transaction characteristics of the blue economy. This study examined how an adaptive regulatory model conceptualised as a Smart Regulatory Framework can be constructed to strengthen Manado’s blue-economy MSMEs and elevate their national and international competitiveness. Employing a juridical-normative method reinforced by a socio-legal approach and Economic Analysis of Law, the study integrated statute, conceptual, and comparative approaches, the latter drawing on blue-economy governance in Norway and Seychelles and on cross-sectoral regulatory sandbox practice. The study proposes a tri-pillar adaptive regulation integrating certainty of marine spatial utilisation, digital transaction security, and a transitional blue standard aligned with internationally recognised sustainability requirements, designed to reduce transaction costs and to operationalise law as a tool of social engineering for sustainable coastal development. Because this study is a normative-conceptual model construction rather than an impact evaluation, these effects are advanced as projected consequences that require ex-post validation once the model has been piloted.]]>
