Abstract Growing disagreements between major actors of world politics and economy have aggravated the conflict between leading competing states and caused expansion of geopolitical and geo-economic rivalry. Living conditions of the population of territories located in the most vulnerable places of the Earth, including ultra-continental cores in the countries of the former “socialist camp” (USSR, China, Mongolia) are sharply deteriorating. Creation of a frame-type network model based on the new industrial innovation centers could contribute to the development of these areas. Such centers should pool and reasonably direct available resources to the most competitive and called-for economy sectors capable to provide the best performance of end-use products output. Along with already recognized subnational leaders, agglomerations of Barnaul, Irkutsk, the Tashkent-Shimkent and Rubtsovsk-Semey transboundary industrial hubs, Jiuquan city district of Gansu province are proposed as nodes for the future development of the study space. The prospects for the Rubtsovsk-Semey hub are demonstrated in more detail. Each core of macro-regional development should have its own polymodal specialization bound as to the world economy as to the interests of Eurasian central countries that enables to mutually complement and strengthen these territories. It is emphasized that the joint strategy of development will ensure a full-fledged economic breakthrough in the ultra-continental Eurasian space.