diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6da911a0f2..2d5ebda7e9 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ deps-test:
 
 # (Re)install the tool
 install:
-	$(PIP) install -U pip wheel
+	$(PIP) install -U pip wheel setuptools fastentrypoints
 	for mod in $(BUILD_ORDER);do (cd $$mod ; $(PIP_INSTALL) .);done
 
 # Install with pip install -e
diff --git a/ocrd/ocrd/constants.py b/ocrd/ocrd/constants.py
index 1d436a7fa9..2e9c17c649 100644
--- a/ocrd/ocrd/constants.py
+++ b/ocrd/ocrd/constants.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 """
 Constants for ocrd.
 """
-from pkg_resources import resource_filename
+from ocrd_utils.package_resources import resource_filename
 
 __all__ = [
     'TMP_PREFIX',
diff --git a/ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/dummy_processor.py b/ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/dummy_processor.py
index 9a1ad511e7..cce37a7430 100644
--- a/ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/dummy_processor.py
+++ b/ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/dummy_processor.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # pylint: disable=missing-module-docstring,invalid-name
 from os.path import join, basename
-from pkg_resources import resource_string
+from ocrd_utils.package_resources import resource_string
 
 import click
 
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 )
 from ocrd_modelfactory import page_from_file
 
-OCRD_TOOL = parse_json_string_with_comments(resource_string(__name__, 'dummy/ocrd-tool.json').decode('utf8'))
+OCRD_TOOL = parse_json_string_with_comments(resource_string(__name__, 'ocrd-tool.json').decode('utf8'))
 
 class DummyProcessor(Processor):
     """
diff --git a/ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/dummy/ocrd-tool.json b/ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/ocrd-tool.json
similarity index 100%
rename from ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/dummy/ocrd-tool.json
rename to ocrd/ocrd/processor/builtin/ocrd-tool.json
diff --git a/ocrd/ocrd/workspace_bagger.py b/ocrd/ocrd/workspace_bagger.py
index 28ae155b9a..ac215fa7e7 100644
--- a/ocrd/ocrd/workspace_bagger.py
+++ b/ocrd/ocrd/workspace_bagger.py
@@ -6,8 +6,6 @@
 import re
 import tempfile
 import sys
-
-from pkg_resources import get_distribution
 from bagit import Bag, make_manifests  # pylint: disable=no-name-in-module
 
 from ocrd_utils import (
@@ -22,6 +20,7 @@
 from ocrd_validators.constants import BAGIT_TXT, TMP_BAGIT_PREFIX, OCRD_BAGIT_PROFILE_URL
 from ocrd_modelfactory import page_from_file
 from ocrd_models.ocrd_page import to_xml
+from ocrd_utils.package_resources import get_distribution
 
 from .workspace import Workspace
 
diff --git a/ocrd/requirements.txt b/ocrd/requirements.txt
index 2da0163b74..ca62ed9370 100644
--- a/ocrd/requirements.txt
+++ b/ocrd/requirements.txt
@@ -7,4 +7,4 @@ opencv-python-headless
 Flask
 jsonschema
 pyyaml
-Deprecated == 1.2.0
+Deprecated == 1.2.0
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ocrd/setup.py b/ocrd/setup.py
index 0c8c0fa2ae..0269893e28 100644
--- a/ocrd/setup.py
+++ b/ocrd/setup.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+import fastentrypoints
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 from ocrd_utils import VERSION
 
diff --git a/ocrd_models/ocrd_models/constants.py b/ocrd_models/ocrd_models/constants.py
index 6c8b0e1017..b3fe89a4c9 100644
--- a/ocrd_models/ocrd_models/constants.py
+++ b/ocrd_models/ocrd_models/constants.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 """
 Constants for ocrd_models.
 """
-from pkg_resources import resource_string
+from ocrd_utils.package_resources import resource_string
 import re
 
 __all__ = [
diff --git a/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/constants.py b/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/constants.py
index 121e5df612..1164025081 100644
--- a/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/constants.py
+++ b/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/constants.py
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 """
 Constants for ocrd_utils.
 """
-from pkg_resources import get_distribution
 from re import compile as regex_compile
 from os import environ
 from os.path import join, expanduser
 
+from ocrd_utils.package_resources import get_distribution
+
 __all__ = [
     'EXT_TO_MIME',
     'LOG_FORMAT',
diff --git a/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/package_resources.py b/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/package_resources.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ee01d046f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocrd_utils/ocrd_utils/package_resources.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+import atexit
+from contextlib import ExitStack
+from pathlib import Path
+
+try:
+    from importlib.resources import path, read_binary
+except ImportError:
+    from importlib_resources import path, read_binary  # type: ignore
+
+try:
+    from importlib.metadata import distribution as get_distribution
+except ImportError:
+    from importlib_metadata import distribution as get_distribution
+
+# See https://importlib-resources.readthedocs.io/en/latest/migration.html#pkg-resources-resource-filename
+_file_manager = ExitStack()
+atexit.register(_file_manager.close)
+
+
+def resource_filename(package: str, resource: str) -> Path:
+    """
+    Reimplementation of the function with the same name from pkg_resources
+
+    Using importlib for better performance
+
+    package : str
+        The package from where to start looking for resource (often __name__)
+    resource : str
+        The resource to look up
+    """
+    parent_package = package.rsplit('.',1)[0]
+    return _file_manager.enter_context(path(parent_package, resource))
+
+
+def resource_string(package: str, resource: str) -> bytes:
+    """
+    Reimplementation of the function with the same name from pkg_resources
+
+    Using importlib for better performance
+
+    package : str
+        The package from where to start looking for resource (often __name__)
+    resource : str
+        The resource to look up
+    """
+    parent_package = package.rsplit('.',1)[0]
+    return read_binary(parent_package, resource)
+
+
+__all__ = ['resource_filename', 'resource_string', 'get_distribution']
diff --git a/ocrd_utils/requirements.txt b/ocrd_utils/requirements.txt
index 300ed90949..de4e7adee3 100644
--- a/ocrd_utils/requirements.txt
+++ b/ocrd_utils/requirements.txt
@@ -3,3 +3,5 @@ Pillow >= 7.2.0
 # tensorflow versions might require different versions
 numpy
 atomicwrites >= 1.3.0
+importlib_metadata;python_version<'3.8'
+importlib_resources;python_version<'3.8'
diff --git a/ocrd_validators/ocrd_validators/constants.py b/ocrd_validators/ocrd_validators/constants.py
index 25d2e0e53b..5497102f25 100644
--- a/ocrd_validators/ocrd_validators/constants.py
+++ b/ocrd_validators/ocrd_validators/constants.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 Constants for ocrd_validators.
 """
 import yaml
-from pkg_resources import resource_string, resource_filename
+from ocrd_utils.package_resources import resource_string, resource_filename
 
 __all__ = [
     'OCRD_TOOL_SCHEMA',