diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 12fee15347e4c198cad07c37c40e32bac045b699..f3729ac9756839d8026399796093ef9c91cab479 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-include LICENSE README.rst bootstrap.py buildout.cfg requirements.txt
+include LICENSE README.rst bootstrap.py buildout.cfg requirements.txt version.txt
 recursive-include doc conf.py *.rst
 recursive-include bob *.cc *.cpp *.h *.hdf5
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0c110b0a362ce4290d96ed78bdd90315ea230ef3..e58f32365c6ff1865ec26df02e028c641652d6d8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,11 +12,12 @@ from bob.blitz.extension import Extension, Library, build_ext
 from bob.extension.utils import load_requirements
 build_requires = load_requirements()
 
+# Define package version
+version = open("version.txt").read().rstrip()
+
 packages = ['boost']
 boost_modules = ['system', 'python']
 
-version = '2.0.0a0'
-
 setup(
 
     name='bob.learn.misc',
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..82d45615df23a942b7d374ee020d3b4fbdf53939
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+2.0.0a3