After providing million in incentives to help land its flight from Seattle, Governor of Illinois George Ryan and Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley came to Boeing Co.'s new headquarters Wednesday to welcome the aerospace giant to town.　Standing next to a 20-foot-tall blue banner reading“Chicago. Our home town.”, the two leaders thanked the aerospace giant for moving there and voiced confidence their investment will be returned many times over.

　　　“We may have had a whirlwind romance last spring, but now we begin a marriage that I think is made to last,”Ryan said.

　　　Only 400 to 500 Boeing employees will be based in Chicago - 0.2 percent of its worldwide work force of 198,000. Just 200 are on the job for the company's first week of operations in the top dozen stories of a downtown office tower.

　　　But state and local leaders are enthused about the .3 billion long-term economic impact Boeing is projected to have on the area, along with the prestige of boasting the world's biggest exporter and airplane maker.

　　　Boeing's chairman and chief executive, Philip Condit, picked Chicago as the new corporate base in May. The break with Seattle,swheresits commercial airplane division is based, is intended to aid Boeing's efforts to grow and expandsintosnew businesses and emphasize its transformation to more than a jetmaker.