It is important for BRICS bushiness communities to be unified especially at this point of time when major changes and uncertainties in global economy present great difficulties to them, said a leading Chinese entrepreneur at the BRICS Business Forum on Monday.

The BRICS economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are growing slower, which gives rise to the voice that the luster of BRICS countries is fading away, said Ma Zehua, chairman of China's biggest shipping group, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO).

He said the best way to get rid of this voice is keeping unified and unyielding to any difficulties, calling on the BRICS business communities to boost mutual trust, eliminate differences through close communications, making full use of platforms, such as the BRICS Business Council, Business Portal, and Business Forum.

Ma said the BRICS communities should consider companies within the five economies when trying to find business partners since many BRICS companies are able to provide equally good products and services as those in the rest of the world.

He said the BRICS companies need to absorb vitality, embrace adventure and innovation, and they should not only focus on the traditional resource-intensive industries, but also bravely explore opportunities in the emerging industries such as renewable energy, value adding manufacturing and information technology.

He appealed to the companies to innovate the form of cooperation, such as creating public and private partnerships among BRICS countries.

As a supporting event for the sixth BRICS summit, the Business Forum was held on Monday in Brazil's northeastern coastal city of Fortaleza, with leading entrepreneurs from the five BRICS countries attending this event.

Established in 1961, COSCO is one of the world's leading groups specializing in global shipping. The conglomerate operates more than 800 merchant vessels with shipping lines covering 1,600 ports in more than 160 countries and regions worldwide.