There are very good reasons given but I would like to add a simpler model - from the infamous book Germs, Guns and Steel.<p>In poorer countries, the biggest problem is related to physical disadvantages.<p>European and American Cities face physical disadvantages but nothing compared to Beijing, Delhi or Cairo. The biggest cities in the anglo-euro sphere are nothing compared to the mega cities in Asia.<p>Scaling the living standard of a typical western to the entire continent of asia requires overcoming real limitations imposed by physics and the natural world.<p>This is why engineering and STEM is so strongly focused in many asian societies.