Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is expected to meet on Monday with Italy's Parliament Speaker Roberto Fico in his first official visit to Cairo, the spokesman for the Egyptian president said.

Fico met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdel-Aal on Sunday in Cairo to discuss matters of mutual interest. 

The meeting was attended by Egyptian parliament leaders including El-Sayed Sherif and Soliman Wahdan, the house speaker deputies, Ahmed Saad El-Din, the secretary-general of the house, and the chairmen of Foreign Relations, Defence, National Security and Human Rights Committees.

Abdel-Aal stressed during the meeting the close ties and historical friendship between the two countries.

The Egyptian parliament speaker said that Italian companies are strongly present in the Egyptian market, citing the work of the giant Italian energy firm Eni in the natural gas field in the country. 

He highlighted the promising investment opportunities in various Egyptian regions, such as the Suez Canal, Ain Sokhna, the North Coast and various governorates that are witnessing the establishment of new integrated industrial zones.

Abdel-Aal also called for the resumption of the meetings of the Egyptian-Italian Business Council to strengthen economic and trade relations between the two countries.

Addressing the case of the murder of Italian student Giulio Regini in Egypt in early 2016, Abdel-Aal told his Italian counterpart that the Egyptian authorities place a high priority on the investigation to determine who killed the graduate student.

For the past two years, Egyptian and Italian authorities have been cooperating in the ongoing investigation into the murder of the Regini, who disappeared in Cairo on 25 January 2016, and was found dead 10 days later, bearing signs of torture.

Abdel-Aal highlighted that investigations into such cases may take time, noting that Egypt cooperates with full transparency with the Italian authorities.