diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31d9137
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2018 the original author or 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.
+#
+
+# set default shell
+SHELL = bash -e -o pipefail
+
+# Variables
+VERSION                  ?= $(shell cat VERSION)
+
+## Docker related
+DOCKER_REGISTRY          ?=
+DOCKER_REPOSITORY        ?=
+DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS        ?=
+DOCKER_TAG               ?= ${VERSION}
+IMAGENAME                := ${DOCKER_REGISTRY}${DOCKER_REPOSITORY}voltha-python-base:${DOCKER_TAG}
+
+## Docker labels. Only set ref and commit date if committed
+DOCKER_LABEL_VCS_URL     ?= $(shell git remote get-url $(shell git remote))
+DOCKER_LABEL_BUILD_DATE  ?= $(shell date -u "+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
+DOCKER_LABEL_COMMIT_DATE = $(shell git show -s --format=%cd --date=iso-strict HEAD)
+
+ifeq ($(shell git ls-files --others --modified --exclude-standard 2>/dev/null | wc -l | sed -e 's/ //g'),0)
+  DOCKER_LABEL_VCS_REF = $(shell git rev-parse HEAD)
+else
+  DOCKER_LABEL_VCS_REF = $(shell git rev-parse HEAD)+dirty
+endif
+
+.PHONY: docker-build
+
+# This should to be the first and default target in this Makefile
+help:
+	@echo "Usage: make [<target>]"
+	@echo "where available targets are:"
+	@echo
+	@echo "docker-build      : Build the ubuntu python base docker image"
+	@echo "help              : Print this help"
+	@echo "docker-push       : Push the docker images to an external repository"
+	@echo
+
+
+## Docker targets
+
+build: docker-build
+
+# only test is that the docker container builds
+test: docker-build
+
+docker-build:
+	docker build $(DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS) \
+    -t ${IMAGENAME} \
+    --build-arg org_label_schema_version="${VERSION}" \
+    --build-arg org_label_schema_vcs_url="${DOCKER_LABEL_VCS_URL}" \
+    --build-arg org_label_schema_vcs_ref="${DOCKER_LABEL_VCS_REF}" \
+    --build-arg org_label_schema_build_date="${DOCKER_LABEL_BUILD_DATE}" \
+    --build-arg org_opencord_vcs_commit_date="${DOCKER_LABEL_COMMIT_DATE}" \
+    -f Dockerfile .
+
+docker-push:
+	docker push ${IMAGENAME}
+
+# end file