Despite the increasing sophistication of Asian-Pacific economies, many of the everyday things we take for granted are still essentially emerging technologies in the region. But rapid adoption of them is making a major contribution to the local economies, one which will only grow with easing trade restrictions.

While many of us would feel naked leaving our homes without our smartphones and all the cat videos they bring us, in many countries on the Pacific Rim cell phones with simple texting capability are still the standard. Smartphones are becoming much more common though, and bringing phones with data capabilities to emerging countries has become a huge industry.

A perfect example is our Pacific Wealth Conservative Portfolio holding, Singapore Telecom (SGAPY).

Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), a trade group of mobile operators, released a report earlier this month that estimates the mobile industry contributes more than $1 trillion a year to the Asia Pacific region’s economy. Much of that is being driven by rising mobile broadband and smartphone sales, requiring both new infrastructure and upgrades of old equipment. Consumers in the Pacific Rim and in the emerging markets generally are increasingly using their phones to receive services ranging from banking and healthcare to education.

Thanks to that growing reliance on smartphones and mobile data, the Asia Pacific region now accounts for about half of the world’s unique mobile subscribers. Still, the GSMA estimates that more than 600 million new unique subscribers will be added by 2020, bring more people in the region into the digital fold.

The mobile telecoms are just one industry in the region enjoying rapid growth, with healthcare being another in more ways than one. Not only are healthcare services  use on the rise, driving profits higher for operators in the region, a growing number of health care companies are also choosing to locate facilities there.

A report from Transparency Market Research forecasts that contract manufacturing organizations (CMO), which make medical devices and pharmaceuticals for other companies, are and will continue to experience phenomenal growth in the region. The group estimates that the CMO market will grow from a value of just more than $97 billion in 2012 to nearly $250 billion by the end of this decade. A major driver of that is the fact that more and more drug and device companies are narrowing their focus on research and development efforts and marketing their products, then choosing to outsource manufacturing functions.

Thanks to high levels of educational attainment across many of the more developed countries in the region, makers of everything from microchips to pharmaceuticals are choosing to build manufacturing plants there. That’s especially true as labor costs in China continue marching higher, essentially pricing Chinese workers out of an increasingly global market.

That’s the perfect example of a virtuous cycle, with growing economies benefiting from both increasing demand and industrialization.

All of that could get a boost later this month, when finance ministers from the countries involved in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations will meet on Maui to hammer out what hopefully will be the final details of the trade agreement. U.S. officials are so confident that a deal is at hand, Congress has been told that this will likely be the last high level meeting on the TPP.

The treaty aims to break down trade barriers between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries. Not only will the U.S. enjoyer greater access to markets in those countries, companies in those countries will have greater and easier access to the U.S., Canadian and Mexican markets, well. That will likely drive even more companies to consider locating manufacturing and other facilities in those countries, driving even more economic growth.

That only further reinforces the virtuous cycle of growing consumption and trade, which will continue to create profit opportunities in the region, even if we consider the technologies and products involved as mundane.