The Marina Bay Promontory turned into a youthful marketplace for a few hours yesterday, with children ringing handbells and hawking handcrafted goods.

The Kids' Bazaar, organised by the Boon Lay Community Club youth executive committee, saw children as young as six run their own business. They sold crafts such as photo frames and badges which they made themselves, and conducted games and provided services such as henna painting.

The bazaar, which aimed to teach children about entrepreneurship, was part of the seventh annual POSB PAssion Run for Kids, a charity event held by the People's Association (PA) and POSB bank.

The runs and walks were cancelled due to the haze, but more than 2,000 participants showed up for the carnival.

The activities, which included rock climbing, balloon sculpting and even a robotics and 3D printing station, were funded by the POSB PAssion Kids Fund, which supports community programmes for children.

The POSB PAssion Run raised $1 million for the fund this year.

At the event, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong launched a book written by children aged six to 13.

Titled Our Homeland In 2065: Musings From Singapore's Children, it is a compilation of 50 stories envisioning the future of the country. The ideas span flying cars, time machines and even houses on clouds.

The book will be distributed to all public and school libraries, community clubs and POSB branches.

Referring to the haze, Mr Wong said: "If you look at what the children wrote about their vision and their hopes in 50 years' time, it is quite inspiring. They hope to do many things. One of the things... is that we can have better weather, and we can control our weather."

Seven-year-old Seet Jiaxin was one of 39 children who ran booths at the bazaar. She sold cards made from drawing paper and stickers.

"It's fun because we can make money. I want to set up my own business next time," said the enthusiastic pupil from Boon Lay Garden Primary School.