NANCHANG, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has urged courts at various levels to further advance alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediations.

Local courts should work with relevant organizations and government agencies to develop one-stop dispute settlement mechanisms for typical areas, so as to promote an interconnected social dispute settlement mechanism besides court litigation, said a statement issued Thursday after a symposium attended by presidents of higher courts across the country.

In 2018, a total of 706,000 cases were solved through designated mediation before case-filing and 352,000 cases through mediation after case-filing.

A total of 15.3 percent of civil and commercial cases in the first instance were mediated by specially appointed mediators, according to the SPC.

The SPC also pledged to expand the coverage of its online mediation platform, which is already serving 1,659 courts in 19 provinces.

More dispute settlement resources should be pooled on the platform, which could enable online consultation, evaluation, litigation-mediation identification, mediation and confirmation, said the SPC.