SEOUL, July 26 - South Korea's economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter thanks to robust investment that showed businesses were confident about a sustained upturn even as the nation's main tradepartners appeared to lose steam.

Asia's fourth-largest economy grew by a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent from the previous quarter and by 7.2 percent from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea's estimates showed on Monday.

"We are pretty bullish on growth going forward. This momentum that Korea carries will continue to Q3 and Q4 at a slightly decelerated pace."

Now entering its fourth year, the 2010 International Trade Awards, sponsored by Santander Corporate Banking, is the only UK wide business awards to exclusively recognise the excellence achieved by the UK’s leading exporters and importers.

As the tenth largest exporter in the world, British companies exported goods and services worth more than £231 billion from 2009 to 2010, and the International Trade Awards celebrate these ventures and successes.

Winning an award not only raises an organisation’s profile it also puts a smile on the faces of employees as last year’s winners of the Excellence In Innovation Award, specialist software developers ITRS Group discovered.