diff --git a/packages/opencensus-core/package.json b/packages/opencensus-core/package.json
index f35c6af80..5f5a72f9f 100644
--- a/packages/opencensus-core/package.json
+++ b/packages/opencensus-core/package.json
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
     "test": "nyc -x '**/test/**' --reporter=html --reporter=text mocha 'build/test/**/*.js'",
     "clean": "rimraf build/*",
     "check": "gts check",
-    "compile": "tsc -p .",
+    "compile": "tsc -p . && cp package.json build/",
     "fix": "gts fix",
     "prepare": "npm run compile",
     "pretest": "npm run compile",
diff --git a/packages/opencensus-core/src/common/version.ts b/packages/opencensus-core/src/common/version.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1ed54cde5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/opencensus-core/src/common/version.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+
+/**
+ * Copyright 2018, OpenCensus Authors
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+const pjson = require('../../package.json');
+export const version: string = pjson.version;
diff --git a/packages/opencensus-core/src/index.ts b/packages/opencensus-core/src/index.ts
index fc9e3c53d..566695782 100644
--- a/packages/opencensus-core/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/opencensus-core/src/index.ts
@@ -55,5 +55,4 @@ import * as logger from './common/console-logger';
 export {logger};
 
 // version
-const version: string = require('../package.json').version;
-export { version };
+export * from './common/version';