What are governance issues in the 4th Industrial Revolution era?

Hi Mandla, In reference to your question, let me remark one of the most important governance issue in the 4th Industrial Revolution era, for me is the achievement of operational efficiency.
Yours sincerelly

Mandla - Good governance has eight major characteristics: it is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law.  To enable good governance this effort requires that all stakeholders — governments, policymakers, international organisations, regulators, business organisations, academia, and civil society —work together to steer the emerging technologies through governance in ways that limit risk and create a world that aligns with common goals for the future.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution and its ramifications will be more profound than in any prior period of human history and therein lie the issues. Major impacts are expected on government, business, civil society, and individuals. Good governance needs to harness these changes and shape a better future - one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; where progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries, rather than cross them.
Through good governance we must identify and manage the potential negative impacts it can have, especially in the areas of equality, employment, privacy, and trust. We have to consciously build positive values into the technologies we create, think about how they are to be used, and design them with ethical applications in mind, and in support of collaborative ways of preserving what’s important to us.

Hi Mandla. Great question and one that I feel is perniciously not being addressed by interested and affected stakeholders. The fourth industrial revolution is bringing about unprecedented, unpredictable and fast, change. There is, therefore, a need for governance from the following perspectives; ethical, social, technologic and economic. I have done some research around the economics of the fourth industrial revolution and posited some governance-related questions. For one, digital technologies that are emerging from the fourth industrial revolution are changing some long-established principles of economics. An example of this is what I have termed the osmosis of skills, spend and productivity to “Centres of Technological Power”. This pertains to how 4IR has brought about the automation of jobs in several industries, which is resulting in the loss of jobs in less-developed countries and transferring productivity to the countries that are trail-blazing the development of these automation technologies. There appears to be no governance around this. Another example is how digital companies can have their products being consumed in any country and not necessarily paying VAT on those products, where they are sold…. There seems to be inadequate legislation/policies around matters like this. I have written articles about such subjects. If you are interested, please read the following article and we can discuss further -

https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2019/03/economics-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/