CANBERRA, Australia — Fiscal cliff? Recession? Not in Asia, where the first countries to see 2013 are enthusiastically welcoming the new year.

Increasingly democratic Myanmar is having a public countdown for the first time. Jakarta plans a huge street party befitting Indonesia’s powering economy.

In Sydney, eager revelers camped Sunday night on the shores of the harbor to get the best vantage points as 1.5 million were expected to gather to watch the fireworks show centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The shores were packed when an eight-minute preliminary show for young children exploded over the harbor three hours before the main event in Sydney and as the clock struck midnight in Samoa and other South Pacific islands to the east, ushering in the new year there.

In Hong Kong, this year’s $1.6 million fireworks display is billed by organizers as the biggest ever in the southern Chinese city. Police expected as many as 100,000 people to watch, local news reports said.

The buoyant economies of the Asia-Pacific are prepared to party with renewed optimism despite the so-called fiscal cliff threatening to reverberate globally from the United States and the tattered economies of Europe.

Celebrations were planned around the world, with hundreds of thousands expected to fill Times Square in New York City to watch the drop of a Waterford crystal-studded ball.