Great Post @trafalgar and this is a topic that I love to discuss.
IQ is influenced by many factors as you mentionned. I also read that some scientists say that it is 60% genetic (your parent's intelligence X probabilities) and 40% linked to you environment as you were saying (Culture of Studies, Childhood...).
Nevertheless IQ is VERY important for the country as let's face it, we need more and more smart people in the IT/Entrepreneurs/Finance segments as there are less ans less manual jobs.
I think the fact that Asian countries have usually High IQ is an explanation of their recent economic success.
After the Korean War in the 50s, South-Korea was as "undevelopped" as Ethiopia/Somalia/etc... Look at them now !
yes it's true, it's hard to quantify the nature/nurture split but they both play a large part
it's definitely a very important attribute
lol @ ai
The example of Korea proves just how important the society can be when it comes to developing the 40% of the IQ as you mentioned. Their working ethic and the very logic approach they have to things, made them great at developing technology.
In general the east asian countries are having high IQ scores.
A big part of their development is also that the government decided to support the private companies by making them partially owned by the state. The state would then boost the finances in case things were going bad.