SINGAPORE - Youths who emerge top in an entrepreneurship competition - River Hongbao Hackathon - will get to run their own stalls at next year's River Hongbao event.

The Feb 3-10 event to celebrate the Chinese New Year has been on Singapore's annual festive calendar since 1987. It typically attracts more than a million visitors during its run.

The Singapore Press Holdings' Chinese Media Group will be sponsoring one night of fireworks as part of next year's River Hongbao celebrations.

Youths aged 18 to 26 in tertiary institutions can form teams of two to five people and submit their ideas online (www.riverhongbao.sg/hacks) up till Dec 22.

A number of teams will be shortlisted for presentations during the hackathon from Jan 3 to 4 next year.

The shortlisted teams will be mentored by a retail expert from Mapletree Investments, a real estate development, investment, capital and property management company headquartered in Singapore.

The top three teams to present their business ideas will each receive a cash prize of $2,000 and seed money of $4,800 to implement their ideas and run their stalls.

They will also pledge 70 per cent of their profits to appointed charity organisations.

Chairman of River Hongbao 2019 Ang Wei Neng, who also sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, said: "Mr Ong Ye Kung, adviser to River Hongbao and Minister for Education, has emphasised the need to incorporate entrepreneurship into the learning experiences of our students.

"The River Hongbao Hackathon is a perfect platform for the students to hone their entrepreneur skills and put them to the test in an authentic but relatively safe environment."