diff --git a/utils/generate_registry_tables.py b/utils/generate_registry_tables.py
index 28152ef3e..14d4909fa 100755
--- a/utils/generate_registry_tables.py
+++ b/utils/generate_registry_tables.py
@@ -15,8 +15,9 @@
 """Generates the vendor tool table from the SPIR-V XML registry."""
 
 import errno
+import io
 import os.path
-import xml.etree.ElementTree
+from xml.etree.ElementTree import XML, XMLParser, TreeBuilder
 
 
 def mkdir_p(directory):
@@ -78,8 +79,9 @@ def main():
                         help='output file for SPIR-V generators table')
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
-    with open(args.xml) as xml_in:
-       registry = xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring(xml_in.read())
+    with io.open(args.xml, encoding='utf-8') as xml_in:
+      parser = XMLParser(target=TreeBuilder(), encoding='utf-8')
+      registry = XML(xml_in.read(), parser=parser)
 
     mkdir_p(os.path.dirname(args.generator_output))
     with open(args.generator_output, 'w') as f: