Saudi Arabia has made significant investments in STEM[1], so I am not sure it is an ideal counterexample, but a corroborating piece of evidence would be Turkey'

Saudi Arabia has made significant investments in STEM[1], so I am not sure it is an ideal counterexample, but a corroborating piece of evidence would be Turkey's higher ranking in STEM graduates than the US[2]. 1: https://www.usnews.com/education/arab-region-universities/engineering https://www.usnews.com/education/arab-region-universities/en... 2: https://www.businessinsider.com/most-technological-countries-lag-behind-in-science-2015-12#1-south-korea-32-had-the-top-10s-largest-drop-from-39-in-2002-even-though-the-country-retained-its-position-at-the-top-of-the-oecds-list-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/most-technological-countries...