LOME, April 1 -- China Merchants Group Ltd has offered scholarships totalling to 200,000 U.S. dollars to the best performing students at Lome University.

In this regard, the company's director Li Xiaopeng handed over a cheque to Togo's Higher Education Minister Octave Broohm during a ceremony held on Monday in Lome in the presence of China's ambassador to Togo Liu Yuxi and the university's vice-chancellor Messanvi Gbeassor.

The donation is part of the corporate social responsibility for China Merchants Group Ltd, a member of the consortium formed to execute the Lome Container Terminal project that is aimed at making Lome port one of the key ports in West Africa with capacity to receive large ships from Asia.

Li explained that the Chinese company wants to go beyond doing business in Togo by contributing to the training of students so that skilled students from Lome University can participate in the running of the Togolese economy, more specifically the port sector.