HNB tour for top 100 Singithi depositors

Hatton National Bank (HNB) recently rewarded the children who emerged as the Top 100 depositors during Singithi Savings Month 2014 with an educational tour to popular attractions in and around Colombo.

The first stop on the tour was Water World Kelaniya, the only public aquarium in Sri Lanka and home to the first ever underwater tunnel aquarium in South Asia.

Thereafter, the tour moved to the liquid plant centre and powder plant of Fonterra Brands Lanka in Biyagama. The Fonterra Liquid Plant Centre for milk powder blending and packing, produces almost half a million packs of milk powder every day.

The winners of the art competition conducted during the Savings Month were rewarded with a guided tour of the Ratmalana Airport, which has a heritage of 80 years as one of the oldest airports in South Asia.

During the Second World War it was used as a Royal Air Force base, and planes flew in to Ratmalana from Perth, Western Australia, on what was at the time the world's longest non-stop air route. For decades Ratmalana served as Colombo's sole international airport before the construction of Bandaranaike International Airport in the 1960s.

The art competition winners were taken around Colombo, to witness and experience popular landmarks in the city such as the Parliament Complex, the old Parliament, Diyatha Uyana, Dutch Hospital, Independence Square and the Galle Face Green. The children were mostly from outstation areas.

The HNB Singithi Savings Month is held throughout October each year to commemorate World Children's Day and World Thrift Day which falls on October 1 and 31 each year. The HNB Singithi brand consists of Singithi Kirikatiyo, Singithi Lama and HNB Teen, which are specialized accounts offered as soon as a child is born, enrolled in school, and becomes a teenager.

The 2015 Singithi Savings Month program will be carried out this month and many fantastic tours and other rewards have been planned by HNB to encourage children to save for their future.