WUHAN - More than 90 million people will benefit from the comprehensive business cooperation jointly launched by Hubei, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, Li Hongzhong, Party chief of Hubei province, said on Friday.

Addressing a conference in Hubei's provincial capital Wuhan, Li said the agreement reached by leaders of the three is a sign that cooperative efforts to establish a new urban hub in Central China have officially begun.

According to Li, the blueprint will enhance business cooperation between three capital cities — Wuhan, Changsha and Nanchang — which form a natural triangle where more than 90 million people live, nearly 8 percent of China’s population.

The zone had a total economic output of 2.5 trillion yuan ($397 billion) and maintained 7.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2010.

More than 129 of the top 500 global companies either have investments or offices in the region, he said.

"The three provinces will work together to build a new urban hub, which will play a significant role in optimizing Central China's productive forces," said Lu Xinshe, governor of Jiangxi.

Their cooperation "ill greatly promote the economic development of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River," Lu said.

Wang Yuqi, director of the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences, said at the conference that the cooperation is expected to build a fourth significant urban hub in China, after the Bohai-Rim Economic Circle (Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan); Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Zhuhai), and Yangtze River Delta (-- Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou).