Colombia orders OLPCs Negroponte shifts another 65,000 XO machines

29 May 2008 17:11 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Colombia is the latest developing country to order in a shipment of the One Laptop Per Child's XO machine.

About 65,000 children in the Caldas region of Colombia will soon be issued with one of the green and white machines.

Apparently small towns and rural areas will get the first 15,000 laptops while the rest will be distributed over the next year and a half to larger towns in the region.

Caldas's governor Mario Aristizabal has been quoted as saying the region was "committed to giving each and every child of primary school age the same opportunity to access knowledge as the most privileged children in New York, Berlin or Tokyo".

Despite plans to sell millions of the low cost machines, the OLPC foundation has shifted around 600,000 of the $188 devices.