Colombia has become the latest country to sign up for the One Laptop Per Child program.

The state of Caldas, Colombia, has signed a purchase agreement for 65,000 XO laptop computers to be distributed to children.

The agreement will see 15,000 of the laptops handed out in Caldas’s more rural areas later on in the year with the remaining 50,000 being distributed in 2008 and 2009. A separate agreement is being discussed for the capital, Manizales so that total coverage of the State is achieved.

Caldas’s Governor, Mario Aristizabal, is spearheading a team that will provide support and implementation capabilities to ensure “the long-term sustainability of the project”.

Upon signing the purchase order, Aristizabal said the government and state legislators are committed to giving every child of primary school age the same opportunity to access knowledge as their more privileged counterparts in cities like Berlin, Tokyo and New York and that they believe the OLPC program is the way forward.

Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman and founder of the OLPC project has said he is pleased that another country has placed an order for the XO laptop.

"We are very pleased that Colombia has committed to working with us to in order to bring a modern education to their primary school children. OLPC is now gaining good traction in signing up countries to undertake significant deployments."

OLPC recently made headlines when it was announced that Microsoft were now on board with a specially developed version of Windows for a possible dual-boot version of the hundred dollar laptop.

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Source : Tom's Hardware