Valery Tsepkalo


Valery Tsepkalo is a Belarusian politician, diplomat, executive, and entrepreneur, the founder of Belarus Hi-Tech Park. Doctor in International Law. From 1997 to 2002 he served as Ambassador to the United States of America and to Mexico, and from 2005 to 2017 he headed Belarus Hi-Tech Park which became the largest IT cluster in Central and Eastern Europe over that period. Currently he is a governmental expert to the UN Secretary General in the field of information and communication technologies.

Biography

Valery Tsepkalo was born in Grodno on 22 February 1965 to a family of chemical engineers. He graduated from Grodno secondary school No.14 with advanced program in English. In 1982 he entered the Belarusian Technological Institute in Minsk where he studied till 1984. In 1984—1986 he underwent compulsory military training in the USSR Strategic Missile Forces. After that, he studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and graduated with honors in 1991. He pursued a postgraduate program there, graduated with honors as well, lectured, and got his PhD degree in International Law.

Diplomatic and political career

He started his diplomatic career in 1991 in the USSR Embassy in Finland. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he decided to return to Belarus, and in 1992 he took a position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. In 1993—1994 he was a foreign policy adviser to the Chairman of the Parliament of Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich. Later, Shushkevich characterized him as a skilled psychologist and professional. Shushkevich recalls that Tsepkalo helped him at the time when he was in disgrace. Later he became an adviser to the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
During 1994 presidential campaign Tsepkalo joined Alexander Lukashenko, along with Viktar Hanchar, Leanid Sinitsyn, Alexander Feduta, and Yury Zacharanka.
As some analytics observed, Lukashenko "was an outsider, a former farm manager, seen as a man of the people, who unexpectedly beat a pillar of the former communist establishment." Tsepkalo became one of the campaign managers. He arranged Lukashenko’s visit to Moscow State Duma and the influential LDPR Party to gain additional political weight.
After Lukashenko's victory, in 1994 he was appointed First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. From 1997 to 2002 he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the United States of America and the United Mexican States.
Upon completing the diplomatic service in the USA, he was appointed Assistant to the President of Belarus on science and technologies.

Creation of High Tech Park

The idea to establish the Belarusian Silicon Valley first appeared when Valery Tsepkalo was visiting the Silicon Valley during his diplomatic service in the USA. Tsepkalo was impressed by the effectiveness of the ecosystem, which stimulated the development of technology companies. The success of Belarusian IT companies in the USA made him think about the possibility of creating favorable conditions for the development of technologies in the Republic of Belarus. Created in 2005, the High-Tech Park aimed to stop the outflow of IT specialists abroad.
He convinced the authorities to create a special economic zone with tax breaks for tech companies and employees. The government donated an abandoned building on the outskirts of Minsk and guaranteed a 1-year $300,000 loan at 17% interest rate to help get it up and running.
On September 22, 2005, Decree On the High-Tech Park was signed, securing benefits for IT-companies. The extraterrestrial High Technologies Park was launched in 2005 under Tsepkalo’s lead.
Over the 10-year history of the Belarus Hi-Tech Park, the number of its residents has increased 59 times, computer software and services exports have evolved 49 times, the number of HTP employees has raised 13 times, and Belarus has improved its ICT Development ranking by 41 positions, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Dismissal

On March 2, 2017, Tsepkalo was released by presidential decree from the director’s post at the HTP. Since 2005 the HTP rose to 237 companies with total annual export over $1 bln. The official media explained the dismissal by the lack of product IT companies and the prevalence of outsourcing developers. After the dismissal, Tsepkalo was criticized by his successor for his selectivity of the HTP residents. Tsepkalo justified his strategy by saying that the first steps are always the hardest to make. The careful selection of the first HTP residents resulted in a high reputation of the Park in the years to follow and a steady flow of investments and orders. After Tsepkalo's dismissal, the new administration focused on statistical growth accepting more than 200 new residents in 2018.

After the HTP

In 2018 he took part in the development of the Mirzo Ulugbek Innovation Center in Uzbekistan.Tsepkalo also consulted governments of Azerbaijan and Georgia on IT legislation issues. He also took part in a large IT project in Saudi Arabia.
At present, he is a member of the Strategic Council of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development. and a government expert to the UN Secretary General in the field of information and communication technologies in the context of information security. On May 8, 2020, Valery Tsepkalo announced about his decision to run for president elections in the Republic of Belarus.

Presidency Campaign

On May 8, 2020, Tsepkalo announced his candidacy for Belarus presidency. To finance the campaign he sold his 418.3 m² house on leaseback terms.
He announced the start of his presidential election campaign by saying:"I would like to restore respect for all citizens of Belarus. I would like to return respect for everyone, no matter who you are, how old and how sick you are. I want to return a respectful attitude to all people of our country." At the press conference, he highlighted the major problem of Belarus: "The biggest threat for Belarus is an inefficient economy, an archaic system of government, and poverty. It’s long past time to reject the obsolete system of government where one person’s mood sets the tone for the whole nation, every day. It’s time to give back the power to the people of Belarus."
"I would like to see the country as a normal European country, where the parliament will reflect the interests of the constituency of their people, not reflect the vision of only one person," Tsepkalo tells me. "I would like to make Belarus a normal European country; a normal democratic country. My vision is to make Belarus the high-tech park," he adds. "To make a good salary for the whole economy."
Lukashenko claimed that Tsepkalo was dismissed as the HTP director for a reason which he should reveal himself. Tsepkalo expained that he was fired because he openly defended Victor Prokopenya and other influential information technology entrepreneurs, who were detained for their business activities.
According to the Belarusian political analyst Artyom Shraibman’s article for Carnegie Moscow Center, 2020 presidential elections will be special for "two prominent members of the establishment" — Valery Tsepkalo and Victor Babariko. The Belarusian philosopher Vladimir Matskevich compared Tsepkalo’s running for president to 2006 Alyaksandr Kazulin’s campaign, launched only as a spoiler to the current government. Shraibman mentions the similarities between political programmes of Tsepkalo and Babariko — both promise a comprehensive state modernization and economic liberalization, a president to be seen as a manager with a two-term limit, a ‘friendship with all’ foreign policy. Red Herring also mentioned that Tsepkalo wants to open Belarus’ economy and limit leadership to two terms.
During the signature collection period, Tsepkalo toured major cities and towns of Belarus, visiting pickets and meeting with voters. On June 24, Tsepkalo announced that he had handed over 160 thousand signatures to the Central Election Commission with the required 100 thousand. Registration of candidates for the presidential elections, which will be held on August 9, is scheduled for July 5-14. On June 30, the Central Election Commission announced that only 75,000 were valid — less than the 100,000 needed.
On July 24, 2020 Tsepkalo and his two sons fled to Russia after being barred from running in the election and alleged threats of prosecution by the prosecutor's office, which declined to comment on Tsepkalo's escape.

Views

Tsepkalo believes that private property is the basis not only for successful economic and social development, but also serves as a foundation for individuals' personal freedom, dignity and self-esteem. He states that real freedom depends upon individuals' economic sovereignty. To his mind, the aspiration of individuals towards economic freedom and individual independence is the main source of human civilization's evolution.
Valery Tsepkalo thinks that property is the embodiment of personality and the main dimension of human existence. It is the condition for the realization of human essence. Therefore, governments should be assessed based on their actions to help their citizens achieve economic freedom as a condition for respect and individual dignity.
In addition, he claims that if possessions simply aim at satisfying human needs such as food, clothing, and shelter, they are essential only for the reproduction of life, i.e. it is the means of satisfying the physical needs of the individual. The possession of the property, such as land ownership, shares, stocks, as well as knowledge and skills signifies not the biological nature of people, but people as social beings. In Mr. Tsepkalo's opinion, the possession of property provides for the ability to reflect on oneself and on social life, and the ability to create new environments. These social needs are related to the acknowledgement of the values one possesses and which are worthy of other people's esteem.

Personal life

Married to Veronika Tsepkalo. Veronika is from Mogilev, graduated from BSU faculty of international relations, then studied at the Higher school of management and business of BSEU. Then she studied business management in India, has worked for a major international Corporation for the past 10 years. The couple has two children.

Criticism

Media pressure after the start of presidency campaign

The Tsepkalo's announcement of his participation in the presidency campaign was a big surprise for Belarusian society.
After his dismissal from HTP, the official media tried to diminish the achievements made by Tsepkalo and the HTP before 2017.
The administrative change in the HTP affected the attitude of dev.by, the main internet media about Belarusian IT, affiliated to HTP and its residents, towards Tsepkalo. On the day after the announcement of Tsepkalo running for elections, dev.by published an article attacking Tsepkalo. Tsepkalo was said to have sent an edited version of his interview and was forced by respond to the journalist's insistence by prohibiting to publish the original version. Throughout the election campaign, dev.by used any source of information to attack the reputation of the HTP creator. Such strange behavior of the media which has never been engaged in politics, caused a lot of readers' comments on subjectivity based on personal or political issues.
A similar attempt was made by village.me when they made a separate article about users' attempts to edit Tsepkalo's personal page on Russian Wikipedia, which does not contradict Wikipedia normal practice and was used to attract publicity to some provocative and unconfirmed facts.

Research and publications