Integration of ASEAN Blue Economy Standards as Reconstruction of Coastal Digitalization for Sustainability and Investment Certainty

Abstract

The blue economy represents one of ASEAN's most strategically significant sectors, carrying substantial potential to drive sustainable economic growth, particularly for coastal communities across the region. Amid the accelerating pace of digital transformation, however, these communities face a pressing legal vacuum one in which neither adequate normative frameworks nor harmonized regional standards sufficiently shield them within digital market ecosystems or safeguard investment certainty in the blue economy sector. The regulatory gap between ASEAN's digital standards and existing national legal instruments constitutes an unresolved structural barrier that demands urgent scholarly attention. This study aims to examine the synchronization of ASEAN Blue Economy digital standards into national regulations as a mechanism for legal protection of coastal communities, while simultaneously constructing a legal reconstruction model capable of ensuring data security and investment certainty for blue economy actors. Employing a normative juridical methodology through both statute and conceptual approaches, this research identifies a fundamental disharmony between ASEAN digital frameworks and domestic regulatory instruments a dissonance that systematically undermines coastal communities' legal standing in digital markets. The study further finds an absence of integrative legal models bridging the blue economy and digital ecosystems. Accordingly, this research proposes a legal tech synergy reconstruction model as a new normative framework cohesively integrating ASEAN Blue Economy standards, data governance, and investment certainty. The findings are intended to serve as a policy foundation and catalyst for national regulatory reform responsive to the evolving digital economy dynamics of Indonesia's coastal territories.