Let me give you a little backgroud to this question. Back in 2000, right around the time when Yahoo was trading at $100 a share, the fourth smallest country in the world sold its domain name to an Idealab backed venture. That country is the Island of Tuvalu, and the domain name is one of those few unique jewels: .TV domain names would be auctioned and marketed to television companies or anyone with interest in publishing video related content online. The media reported that the DotTV deal was worth US$50 million to the island of Tuvalu.

After that, the University of Andes, figuring it had an even better jewel, reportedly tried to sell Colombia's domain name for a similar amount (some say greater) and use the funds to finance scholarships - a noble proposition. Unfortunately for them, those plans were halted after the Colombian government decided that the university did not have the authority to sell the country's domain name.

Fast forward to 2008. Although the university is still managing the TLD, the government now has legal authority over its direction and shortly it will be seeking a third party to manage it. This begs the question:  Should the government expect a windfall? How much is it worth?

A few things to point out that may affect the long term value of the TLD:

1. Colombia is not selling its domain name. It is only outsourcing its management. There's a huge difference between selling a country's TLD and outsourcing its management. If a government sells its TLD, it gives control away to a third party forever. If it outsources its management, it retains control of policy and can impact the overall direction of the space. It made sense for Tuvalu to sell its domain:  apart from facing extinction because of rising seas and deadly storms ("let's sell it while we can!"), the country has 12,000 citizens and a GDP of US$15 million. Colombia has a population of 40 million and a GDP of $350 billion. The citizens of Colombia have enough economic activity and demand for internet services to warrant retaining control of .CO.
2. DotTV was a huge flop.  The island of Tuvalu did not get a check for US$50 million in the mail. A victim of the internet bubble, the deal was projected to be worth that amount over a number of years only if X, Y, and Z happened. None of those things materialized. The bubble had burst a month before the deal was announced, and there was not enough online video at the time to sustain the model. Instead of cash, projected payments were exchanged for shares in .TV Corp. (remember the value of those Yahoo shares?). While the current details are fuzzy, I'm hoping the citizens of Tuvalu are doing a little better now that Verisign and Demand Media, having acquired .TV Corp, are pumping renewed energy into the venture. 
3. Lastly, ICANN has pre-approved a plan to launch many more TLDs starting in 2009. While memorable TLDs will always be valuable, the reality is that the domain administration world will see significant margin compression in the years to come. You can already see this with TLDs such as .info selling for the price of peanuts in an effort to gain market share. In the world of TLDs with potential global appeal, critical mass is vitally important for one basic reason: branding.  By dumping individual names, TLD administrators figure that they can get enough websites to use them so that internet users will actually remember that the extension exists.  This is supposed to cause higher renewal rates and further new registrations.  Imagine what will happen when hundreds of new TLDs are out trying to do something similar.  It's a tough battle against .COM.

So, should the goverment of Colombia expect a US$50 million check for .CO? The answer is no.  The country is not selling its TLD, we are not in 1999/2000, and the market for domain names has changed dramatically.  The government should get some revenue from whoever ends up operating the domain. However, when compared to cellular phone royalties, oil concessions and other more traditional sources of income, the country will not get rich selling .CO.