The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced its first trade finance agreements with Georgia that will provide guarantees and loans through banks in the central Asian country.

Signed with Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank, the trade finance agreements are seen providing a boost to the trade sector and Georgia's role as a "strategic hub between Europe and Asia," the Manila-based ADB said.

The agreements, extended under ADB's trade finance program, the agreements are expected specifically to "help firms, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to access key financing and do more business," ADB's vice president for private sector and cofinancing operations Lakshmi Venkatachalam said at the signing ceremony.

Mr Venkatachalam said such a strategy "boosts employment, promotes economic growth, and enhances the country's international trade links."

Owing to their inability to access financing, small and medium-sized enterprises in Georgia now employ less than 40 percent of the country's total workforce-less than in many other developing countries-and hindered their expansion, the ADB official noted.

Strategically located between Europe and Asia, Georgia appears "well-placed to benefit from growing trade between the two regions as the global economy rebalances," ADB said in a statement.

It can only do that, however, if there is an increase in scarce trade finance from Georgian and other banks to allow local companies to import goods they need and export other products, it said.

ADB said its trade finance program supported trade transactions worth $2.8 billion in 2010, a 47 percent increase from $1.9 billion in 2009. Of the total 783 transactions, just over 270 involved smaller firms in the region, it said.

Since it started operations in 2004, ADB said it has supported $5.2 billion in trade, with half of the outstanding portfolio supporting transactions between the bank's developing member countries.