Eh, you don't need to dismiss the impact of colonialism or have any notion of inherent racial qualities to think this is true. Having strong, consistent institutions and relatively low levels of corruption (or at the very least, concentrated and generally legal corruption) is a per se advantage of operating in a developed economy. If you don't have experience with the other side of things, you probably don't have a clear sense of just how gummed up the works can get with nonsense.