China will introduce policies to boost domestic consumption of automobiles and home appliances this year, according to a senior official from the country's top economic planner. 

In the past year, car sales in China almost reached 30 million, but the market still has potential, Ning Jizhe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told CCTV in an interview. 

Automobiles have become increasingly popular in rural China, and the NDRC is considering mapping out measures to encourage rural residents' consumption, he said. 

In 2018, China's middle-class population hit 400 million for the first time. And China will further reform of its income distribution system to enhance residents' spending power, Ning said. 

China will also further expand the scope of foreign investment, he said, as the country plans to remove more restrictions on foreign investment other than those covered in the negative list.

In the first quarter of 2019, China will also speed up the implementation of the second batch of major foreign invested projects, mostly in the new energy sector. The investment amount of each project will reach several billion or even hundreds of billion U.S. dollars.

China has already advanced the first batch of seven major foreign invested projects in the past few months, including BMW's new joint venture in northeast China's Shenyang City and Tesla's new plant in Shanghai.