Correlation between MSME Growth and Trademark Registration Rate in Makassar City: A BPS Data Study

Abstract

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) constitute the backbone of Makassar City's economy; however, the rapid growth in the number of business units has not been fully accompanied by business actors' legal awareness to register their trademarks. This article aims to examine the relationship between the growth in the number of MSMEs and the rate of trademark registration in Makassar City, while also identifying the legal and institutional factors influencing that relationship. This study employs a descriptive-correlational quantitative approach using secondary data sourced from publications of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Makassar City and South Sulawesi Province, official releases of the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, as well as relevant regulatory reviews. The analysis was conducted through descriptive trend presentation, cross-tabulation, and correlational review of two main variables, namely MSME growth and the rate of intellectual property (including trademark) applications in Makassar City. The results show that the number of MSMEs in Makassar City has grown significantly over the past decade, while the rate of trademark registration by MSME actors remains relatively low compared to the existing business population. Intellectual property applications from South Sulawesi, with Makassar City as the largest contributor, show an increasing trend, yet their proportion relative to the total number of MSMEs remains small, indicating a gap between the growth in business quantity and legal awareness of trademarks. This article contributes an initial quantitative mapping of the relationship between MSME dynamics and intellectual property legal awareness at the city level based on official BPS and DJKI data, a topic that has rarely been specifically examined in the context of Makassar City. These findings are expected to serve as a reference for local government and DJKI in designing policies to accelerate trademark registration for MSMEs, as well as to open avenues for further research using more granular time-series data.