diff --git a/PythonAPI/setup.py b/PythonAPI/setup.py
index eb3d508c63b5593dd418fcf2c1a659d3edb75859..dbf00930307950f57608307d3d19b68e9c292c8e 100644
--- a/PythonAPI/setup.py
+++ b/PythonAPI/setup.py
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
-from distutils.core import setup
-from Cython.Build import cythonize
-from distutils.extension import Extension
+from setuptools import setup, Extension
 import numpy as np
 
 # To compile and install locally run "python setup.py build_ext --inplace"
@@ -15,10 +13,15 @@ ext_modules = [
     )
 ]
 
-setup(name='pycocotools',
-      packages=['pycocotools'],
-      package_dir = {'pycocotools': 'pycocotools'},
-      version='2.0',
-      ext_modules=
-          cythonize(ext_modules)
-      )
\ No newline at end of file
+setup(
+    name='pycocotools',
+    packages=['pycocotools'],
+    package_dir = {'pycocotools': 'pycocotools'},
+    install_requires=[
+        'setuptools>=18.0',
+        'cython>=0.27.3',
+        'matplotlib>=2.1.0'
+    ],
+    version='2.0',
+    ext_modules= ext_modules
+)